{"id":560495,"date":"2026-03-24T05:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560495\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T05:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:48:20","slug":"nsw-productivity-commissioner-proposes-ban-on-commissions-paid-to-strata-managers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560495\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW productivity commissioner proposes ban on commissions paid to strata managers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commissions paid to strata managers could be banned in New South Wales under a proposal that would make apartment living more affordable for millions of residents.<\/p>\n

A NSW Productivity and Equality Commission report recommended phasing out commissions in favour of a fee-for-service model which it says would increase fairness and transparency for apartment owners.<\/p>\n

Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat said the current commission-based model was legal but created a conflict of interest which increased costs for owners.<\/p>\n

“They can also make it harder for owners to understand the cost involved and they can undermine the trust between owners and managers,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY<\/p>\n

Strata managers are appointed by owners’ corporations to manage the daily operations of their apartment building. (Four Corners: Rob Hill)<\/p>\n

“Abolishing commissions can do three things: it can increase transparency, it can increase competition and it can increase the value of money to owners and hopefully that’ll be passed on to renters of strata apartments.”<\/p>\n

Strata managers are appointed by owners’ corporations to manage the daily operations of their apartment building, and these managers can receive commissions for new contracts or insurance products.<\/p>\n

Mr Achterstraat said removing these commissions would likely result in lower premiums and lower strata fees for apartment owners.<\/p>\n

“At the moment it’s very complex and many of the owners don’t understand exactly what fees and renumerations are being paid,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we can make it more transparent then there’ll be a greater incentive for competition and there’ll be a greater relationship between owners and managers.<\/p>\n

“When owners can clearly see what they’re paying for and why they’re paying for it, then there’s better value for money and there’s a better relationship between the owners and the strata managers.”<\/p>\n

Recommendation welcomed<\/p>\n

The report found nearly a quarter of all NSW residents live in residential strata schemes \u2014 including apartments, townhouses, villas and duplexes.<\/p>\n

It estimated around half of all homes in Sydney will be strata dwellings by 2041.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Nearly a quarter of NSW residents live in strata schemes, including apartments, townhouses and duplexes. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

David Glover from the Owners Corporation Network Australia backed the commission’s recommendation and called for more transparency between owners and strata managers.<\/p>\n

“They need to be able to trust those managers, those managers need to be professionals,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We want professional, competent, strata managers being paid fairly for their professional work \u2014 we do not want dishonest crooks who are looking for every ticket they can clip.”<\/p>\n

Mr Glover said commissions amounted to “hidden payments” that created an incentive for strata managers to sign up to more expensive contracts or services, rather than shopping around for the best deal for owner’s corporations.<\/p>\n

“They [owners corporations] don’t know what they’re paying their strata managers,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They think they’re paying them a certain amount but the strata managers are getting other income from elsewhere \u2014 ultimately all of this money comes out of owners’ pockets.<\/p>\n

“It makes it very difficult to compare strata managers when you’re looking at whether you’re getting value or not because you don’t really know how much they’re taking from you.”<\/p>\n

NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Trading Anoulack Chanthivong said the government would now carefully consider the commission’s findings and recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commissions paid to strata managers could be banned in New South Wales under a proposal that would make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,276503,276504,2733,276505,276507,276492,276499,276494,276500,276496,276495,276493,276506,276498,276497,276501,182874,276502],"class_list":["post-560495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-do-strata-managers-make-commissions","tag-how-much-commissions-do-strata-managers-make","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-productivity-commission","tag-productivity-and-equality-commission-report","tag-strata","tag-strata-commission-nsw","tag-strata-commissions","tag-strata-cost","tag-strata-fees","tag-strata-housing","tag-strata-management","tag-strata-managers-commissions-rules","tag-strata-schemes","tag-strata-sydney","tag-sydney-housing","tag-sydney-news","tag-sydney-rental"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}