Every Apartment Comes With a Building

When you buy an apartment, you’re not just buying the walls around you. You’re buying into the building behind them.

Most buyers spend their time thinking about the apartment. The light. The layout. The finishes. That’s understandable. It’s the thing you’ll live in. Makes sense.

But in a strata property, the building often has more impact on your future costs than the apartment itself.

Previous owners made decisions you’ll pay for

Every building carries the weight of decisions made before you arrived.

Maintenance that was deferred. Repairs that were patched instead of fixed. Levies that weren’t increased when they should have been. Capital works that were pushed down the road.

Those decisions become yours. Not because you made them, but because you’re now a part-owner of the building that did.

Insurance tells a story

A building’s insurance history is often more revealing than buyers realise.

Claims for water damage, fire, storms or structural issues don’t just affect premiums. They can point to problems that may still exist or may return.If a building has been claiming repeatedly for the same issue, that’s worth understanding before you buy.

The challenge is that most strata reports don’t contain claims history in any meaningful way.

Defects don’t always end when the work does

A defect that has been repaired isn’t necessarily a closed chapter.

Issues can reappear. Repairs may not have been completed properly. Work might have been done without adequate certification or documentation.

And when defects remain unresolved, the financial exposure can be significant. Sometimes it results in a special levy arriving shortly after settlement.

Capital works plans shape your future costs

Most strata schemes maintain a capital works fund to pay for major building expenses over time.

The health of that fund tells you a lot. A well-funded plan with realistic forecasting is generally a good sign. A thin fund facing significant upcoming works can mean higher levies and additional costs in the future.

Knowing the building helps you buy better

None of this is meant to make apartment buying feel overwhelming.

Most buildings are perfectly fine. But the buildings that aren’t can be difficult to identify if you’re only looking at the apartment. You may own your apartment individually, but many of the risks and costs are shared.

Understanding the building, its maintenance history, finances, insurance record and defects gives you a much clearer picture of what you’re actually buying.

That’s exactly what Cohabit is built to help you do. We take the strata report, the document that holds most of this information, and turn it into something you can actually read and act on.

Because every apartment comes with a building. And the building is part of the deal.