Renovating a Brisbane apartment involves a layer that house renovations do not: you do not own most of the building you are altering. The walls, floors, ceilings, windows and services that define your apartment are, in large part, common property belonging to the body corporate.
Queensland uses the term body corporate rather than the strata terminology of New South Wales or the owners corporation of Victoria. The framework comes from the Body Corporate and Community Management Act and the by-laws registered for your particular scheme, and it governs what you can do before any private certifier gets involved.
Understanding What You Own
The boundary between lot property and common property is defined by the registered community management statement and the survey plan for your building. In most Brisbane apartment schemes, the boundary is the inner surface of the structural walls, floors and ceilings.
Typically:
- Lot property — internal non-structural walls, floor coverings, wall linings and paint, kitchen and bathroom fixtures and fittings, internal doors, light fittings, and services serving only your lot
- Common property — structural walls and slabs, the building envelope, windows and external doors, balconies in most cases, waterproofing membranes, plumbing stacks, main electrical infrastructure, and anything serving more than one lot
Order the community management statement, the by-laws and the survey plan before planning anything. They are inexpensive and they determine the whole project.
What Requires Body Corporate Approval
The specific requirements come from your scheme’s by-laws, but three categories emerge in practice.
Work that generally needs no approval
- Internal painting and decorating
- Replacing carpet with carpet
- Replacing internal blinds and curtains
- Minor fixtures within the lot — shelving, picture hanging
- Replacing light fittings within the lot
You remain responsible for any damage to common property caused by the work.
Work that needs approval under the by-laws
- Kitchen renovations
- Removing non-structural internal walls
- Installing hard floor coverings in place of carpet
- Recessed light fittings penetrating the ceiling
- Air conditioning, particularly the external condenser and any penetration through the envelope
- Anything affecting services shared with other lots
Work requiring a formal resolution and often an agreement
- Any bathroom or laundry renovation, because it disturbs waterproofing that is common property
- Removing or altering structural walls
- Altering windows, external doors or balcony enclosures
- Changing balcony tiling or waterproofing
- Relocating plumbing connecting to common stacks
- Anything altering the building’s external appearance
For works affecting common property, bodies corporate commonly require a written agreement recording what you may do and allocating ongoing responsibility for maintaining and repairing the altered common property to you and to future owners of your lot. Preparing such an agreement costs $1,000 to $3,000 in legal fees.
The Approval Process
- Obtain the community management statement, by-laws and survey plan through the body corporate manager or a title search
- Speak to the manager early to establish what your scheme requires and how decisions are made — committee resolution or general meeting
- Prepare a proper application — scope of works, drawings, contractor details including the QBCC licence number, insurance certificates, a work programme, and arrangements for waste, access and cleaning
- Have an agreement drafted where common property is affected
- Get it before the committee or a general meeting. If the annual general meeting has just passed, an extraordinary general meeting may need convening, and the body corporate may charge you for it.
- Obtain the resolution in writing before any work starts
- Then address the building approval, which is a separate question entirely
Allow two to five months from first enquiry to approval for significant works.
Building Approval Is Separate
Body corporate approval is not a building approval. In Queensland you will need a building approval from a private certifier where the work involves:
- Altering or removing a structural wall
- Structural change to the floor
- Altering fire-rated construction or fire safety measures
- Changing the external appearance of the building
- Enclosing a balcony
Fire safety is most often overlooked. Apartment buildings have fire-rated separations between lots and to common corridors, and penetrating them — for a rangehood duct, a recessed light, or a relocated service — compromises a system the building’s fire safety compliance depends on. See our guide to Brisbane approvals.
Practical Constraints
Concrete slabs
Most Brisbane apartments sit on post-tensioned or conventionally reinforced concrete slabs. Three consequences:
- Plumbing cannot easily move. Waste pipes are cast into or run beneath the slab. Relocating a toilet, shower or sink may require core drilling, which in a post-tensioned slab is dangerous without a scan to locate tendons and may be prohibited outright. Where permitted, expect $4,000 to $8,000 and an engineer’s involvement.
- Floor levels are fixed. There is often no set-down for a hobless shower.
- Chasing walls for electrical is limited where walls are concrete rather than framed.
This is a sharp reversal from Brisbane’s house stock, where an accessible subfloor makes services unusually flexible. Owners moving from a Queenslander to an apartment are frequently surprised by how constrained the plumbing is.
Acoustic requirements for flooring
Replacing carpet with a hard floor is the most frequent source of conflict in Brisbane apartment buildings, because impact noise transmits through concrete slabs far more readily than owners expect.
Most by-laws impose a minimum acoustic performance requirement on hard floor coverings, applying to the finished floor system — covering plus underlay — not the underlay alone.
A related guide to consider while planning this work is Acoustic Underlay for Apartment Flooring: What to Check Before Buying.
- Obtain the specific acoustic requirement before selecting any product
- Use an acoustic underlay tested as a system with your chosen covering, and get the certificate
- Include perimeter isolation so the floor does not bridge to the walls
- Retain the certificate and the installer’s declaration for the body corporate
- Consider a post-installation acoustic test where the by-laws require one, at $800 to $2,000
Getting this wrong is severe: the body corporate can require removal and replacement at your cost, and disputes go to the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.
Access and logistics
- Lift bookings and protection, often with a bond of $500 to $2,000
- Restricted work hours, typically weekdays
- No common area storage
- Waste removal via the lift, adding significant labour
- Loading dock restrictions, particularly acute in the CBD, South Bank, Newstead and Fortitude Valley
These constraints commonly add 15 to 25 per cent to the labour component compared with the same work in a house.
Ventilation and humidity
Apartment bathrooms and kitchens usually vent into a shared shaft serving multiple lots. You generally cannot install your own external discharge and must not disturb the shared system.
In Brisbane’s humidity this matters more than in southern capitals. A poorly ventilated apartment bathroom develops mould regardless of how good the waterproofing is. Where the shared system is inadequate, raise it with the body corporate as a building issue rather than trying to solve it within your lot — it is common property, and it is their responsibility.
Balconies
Balconies are almost always common property, even where the by-laws grant exclusive use. The slab, balustrade, waterproofing and drainage belong to the body corporate.
- Re-tiling a balcony disturbs common property waterproofing and requires a formal resolution and usually an agreement
- Balustrade changes alter external appearance, require approval, and must meet current safety standards
- Pedestal-mounted decking tiles over the existing surface are often a practical alternative, being removable and not disturbing the membrane — but check the by-laws, as some schemes prohibit added load or coverings
- Enclosing or glazing a balcony requires body corporate approval, a building approval, and frequently affects fire engineering
- Planters and heavy pots can exceed design loads and trap moisture against the membrane — a real issue in Brisbane’s rainfall
In Brisbane’s climate the balcony is genuinely valuable living space, so it is worth understanding what you can and cannot do with it before buying.
What It Costs
- Cosmetic refresh — paint, floor coverings, light fittings, tapware: $9,000 to $24,000
- Kitchen renovation — $17,000 to $42,000
- Bathroom renovation — $20,000 to $38,000, higher than an equivalent house bathroom because of access, waste handling and slab constraints
- Full two-bedroom apartment renovation — $65,000 to $150,000
- High-end apartment renovation — $160,000 to $450,000
Add body corporate costs: agreement preparation at $1,000 to $3,000, potential extraordinary general meeting costs, lift and building bonds, and in some buildings a contribution toward the body corporate’s legal review.
Licensing and Warranty Still Apply
Queensland’s low thresholds apply to apartment work exactly as they do to houses:
- A QBCC licence is required for building work over $3,300, and at any value for plumbing, drainage and gas fitting
- Queensland Home Warranty Scheme cover is compulsory above $3,300 — which captures essentially every apartment kitchen or bathroom renovation
- Cover runs 6 years and 6 months from the earliest of contract, premium payment or commencement, with a $200,000 maximum
- Using an unlicensed contractor may void that cover entirely
Most by-laws also require contractor public liability insurance naming the body corporate. See our guide to vetting a Brisbane builder.
Waterproofing Is the Critical Risk
In a house, a failed membrane damages your own property. In an apartment it damages the lot below, and you will be pursued by the affected owner, the body corporate, and potentially both insurers.
Because the membrane is common property, altering it without a proper agreement can leave you personally liable for consequential damage without the protection of the body corporate’s insurance.
The non-negotiables:
- A properly licensed contractor and full documentation of the membrane system
- Comprehensive photographs of the completed membrane before tiling
- A flood test before tiling, without exception
- A written agreement covering the alteration and allocating maintenance responsibility
- Contractor public liability insurance naming the body corporate
See our detailed guide to waterproofing and wet area compliance in Brisbane.
Older Walk-Ups Versus Modern Towers
Brisbane’s apartment stock divides into two quite different propositions.
Post-war and 1970s-80s walk-ups — common in New Farm, Kangaroo Point, Toowong, Auchenflower and Coorparoo. Typically brick with timber-framed internal walls, generous proportions, and services at or past end of life. They renovate well and the bodies corporate tend to be small and pragmatic. The catch is building-wide issues — concrete spalling, failed common waterproofing, old electrical infrastructure — which in Brisbane’s climate arrive sooner and can generate large special levies.
Modern towers — CBD, South Bank, Newstead, Fortitude Valley and West End. Concrete slabs, fixed services, tight fire separation, professional management, detailed by-laws. Renovation is more constrained but more predictable.
Before buying either as a renovation project, obtain the body corporate records: by-laws, the sinking fund forecast, financial statements, recent minutes, and any building defect reports. In Brisbane, specifically check for water ingress history — the combination of storm rainfall and ageing membranes generates a great deal of apartment litigation in this city.
Making It Go Smoothly
- Read the by-laws before you buy if the apartment is a renovation project
- Talk to the committee, not just the manager. The committee decides.
- Present a professional application — drawings, QBCC licence, insurance, programme and waste plan
- Commit to the constraints in writing — work hours, lift protection, corridor cleaning, completion date
- Use a builder who works in body corporate buildings regularly
- Notify neighbours directly before work starts. Most complaints are about surprise, not noise.
Brisbane apartment renovation is slower and more procedural than house renovation, but the constraints are knowable in advance. The projects that go badly are almost never stopped by the body corporate itself — they are stopped by an owner who started demolition before reading the community management statement.
Humidity, Ventilation and Comfort
Brisbane apartments present a comfort problem that houses do not, and it is worth planning for before renovating.
Many Brisbane apartments have large glazed areas with limited external shading, minimal cross-ventilation because openings are on one facade only, and mechanical ventilation shared with other lots. In this climate that combination produces rooms that are hot in the afternoon and humid year-round.
What you can do within a lot:
- Ceiling fans — the highest-value comfort measure available, and usually within your control
- Internal shading — blockout and screen blinds, though external shading is far more effective if the by-laws and building allow it
- Window film to reduce solar heat gain where external shading is not possible
- Correctly sized air conditioning that runs long enough to dehumidify rather than short-cycling
- Mould-resistant paint in wet areas and on external-facing walls
- Keeping the existing exhaust systems clear and serviced
Where the building’s shared ventilation is inadequate — which in Brisbane’s humidity shows up as recurring mould in multiple lots — raise it with the body corporate as a building issue. The shaft and the mechanical plant are common property, and remediation is their responsibility rather than yours.
Storm Damage and Water Ingress History
Before buying a Brisbane apartment as a renovation project, investigate the building’s water history specifically.
Brisbane’s combination of intense storm rainfall, ageing waterproofing membranes and large balcony areas generates a great deal of apartment water ingress litigation in this city. The questions to ask of the body corporate records:
- Has there been water ingress through the facade, balconies or roof, and was it remediated?
- Is there a current building defect report, and what does it say about waterproofing?
- What is the age and condition of the balcony membranes?
- Has a special levy been raised, or is one forecast, for remediation work?
- What does the sinking fund forecast provide for waterproofing renewal?
- Has the building been affected by flooding, and at what level?
A building with a known water ingress issue and an underfunded sinking fund is a materially different investment from one without — regardless of how good your apartment could look. A $60,000 special levy landing two years after a $90,000 renovation is a common and entirely foreseeable Brisbane outcome.