More commonly known as a strata title or group title, a community title scheme (QLD) is a popular property arrangement that lets you own a private section of a property (like your unit, townhouse or even office), while sharing common areas with other owners.
This style of living is especially popular in urban environments where traditional freehold titles don’t always make sense. In fact, Queensland is home to 51,000 community title scheme properties, covering over 523,000 individual lots. Community title schemes can be found in a variety of different properties, including duplexes, residential unit blocks, high-rise complexes, shopping centres, and business parks.
They make higher-density living not just possible but practical. They can be an affordable, low-maintenance, and convenient choice, especially for individuals, retirees looking to downsize, or anyone after a simpler way of living without giving up their independence.
In this post, we’ll break down exactly what a Community Title Scheme is, how it works, and what it means for you as an owner or buyer in Queensland.
What is a Community Title Scheme in QLD?
A Community Title Scheme (CTS) in Queensland is a property ownership model that’s becoming increasingly popular across the state.
Under a community title scheme, land is legally divided into at least two individual lots (privately owned) and common property (shared by all lot owners). Each owner holds title to their lot, be it a unit, townhouse, or office space, while also sharing ownership of common areas like gardens, driveways, stairwells, or recreational facilities.
These shared spaces are managed and maintained collectively through a legal entity known as the body corporate.
The Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 brought community title schemes to better manage group titles, building units, and strata corporations. This legislation’s main goal is to provide a modern, flexible framework for community-style living and shared freehold land use.
Key Legal Requirements for a Community Title Scheme in Queensland
To be officially recognised, a community title scheme must include:
- A single community management statement (CMS), recorded with the registrar and outlining rules and scheme-specific details
- The scheme land, comprising at least two lots plus common property
- A single body corporate, which is automatically formed when the first lot is sold
How It Differs from Traditional Freehold Ownership
With standard freehold ownership, you own both the land and the building outright. In contrast, a community title allows you to own your individual lot, usually from the floor to the ceiling and to the centre of shared or external walls, but not the land or shared spaces.
When you buy into a CTS, you automatically become a member of the body corporate, which is responsible for managing the common areas and enforcing bylaws. All owners contribute to shared expenses through regular levies, and they share ownership of common property as tenants in common, with each person’s share determined by their lot entitlement.
Where Community Title Schemes Are Commonly Used
These schemes are incredibly versatile and can be found in a wide range of property types across Queensland, including:
- High-rise residential buildings
- Townhouse complexes
- Duplexes
- Business parks and shopping centres
- Free-standing homes that are part of a larger master-planned development
While many people associate community title schemes with big apartment blocks, they can just as easily apply to dual occupancy homes on a standard lot. This flexibility is one of the reasons why CTS is now such a widespread and practical option for property development and ownership in Queensland.
Understanding the Role of the Body Corporate
If you buy a property within a community title scheme in Queensland, you automatically become part of the body corporate. There’s no opting in or out as membership comes with ownership.
What Does the Body Corporate Do?
The body corporate is responsible for managing shared property, enforcing by-laws, and protecting the interests of all owners. Here’s a breakdown of its key responsibilities:
- Maintains common property such as gardens, driveways, lifts, stairwells, and shared facilities
- Sets and collects levies, which are regular payments from owners that cover ongoing maintenance, insurance, and other costs
- Creates and enforces bylaws around things like pets, parking, noise, and renovations
- Insures common property and public liability ,providing essential coverage for buildings and shared spaces
- Manages body corporate assets such as equipment, shared utilities, and infrastructure
- Keeps accurate records, including financial reports, owner details, meeting minutes, and asset registers
Importantly, the body corporate can’t operate a business or transfer its powers to others. Everything it does must comply with the Community Management Statement (CMS) and the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997.
How Are Decisions Made?
Decisions within the body corporate are made in two key ways: general meetings and committee meetings.
- General Meetings: Every body corporate must hold at least one general meeting each year. All lot owners are invited to attend and vote on major decisions, like setting the budget, reviewing levies, and planning future projects for the scheme.
- Committee Meetings: At each annual general meeting, owners elect a committee made up of a chairperson, secretary, treasurer, and ordinary members. This group manages the day-to-day decisions and operations between general meetings.
However, while the committee handles many day-to-day decisions, it can’t touch certain “restricted issues”. These include setting levies, changing owners’ rights, or starting most legal proceedings.
Why Community Title Schemes Are Used In Queensland
Why are more Queenslanders embracing community title living? They offer a smart, flexible way to live and own property, especially in urban areas where space is limited and traditional freehold titles don’t make as much sense.
- Supports Higher-Density Living in Urban Areas: Community title schemes are a natural fit for cities and built-up areas. They make it possible to develop unit blocks, high-rises, and townhouse complexes where subdividing land into individual freehold lots simply isn’t practical. This allows more people to live in central locations, close to work, shops, and public transport.
- Individual Ownership With Shared Amenities: Each owner holds title to their own lot while also enjoying access to shared facilities like swimming pools, landscaped gardens, gyms, and other recreational areas. These kinds of amenities can be costly to own individually but are made affordable through shared ownership.
- Collective Management: Instead of each owner being responsible for maintaining shared areas, the body corporate steps in to handle things like cleaning, repairs, and upkeep of common property. This relieves individual owners from dealing with these logistics while ensuring the community stays well-maintained.
- Insurance Benefits and Cost Savings: The body corporate is also responsible for insuring the common property, which can lead to lower individual costs and greater peace of mind. Rather than each owner needing to arrange insurance for shared spaces, it’s all coordinated centrally and fairly distributed through levies.
- Voting Rights and Community Involvement: One of the biggest benefits of a community title scheme is having a say in how things are run. Lot owners can vote on budgets, bylaws, upgrades, and improvements, helping shape the direction of your community.
- Flexible and Future-Proof: Community title schemes are surprisingly adaptable. The person setting up the scheme can tailor it with specific rules (by-laws) to suit the type of community they want to create, within legal limits, of course. This flexibility helps accommodate future needs and supports long-term economic growth.
- Clear Legal Structure: The scheme comes with a clearly defined legal framework that outlines roles, responsibilities, and processes. This structure helps prevent confusion and provides consistency, particularly around maintenance, finance, and dispute resolution.
- Affordability for Downsizers and First-Time Buyers: For singles, retirees, and those looking to downsize or enter the property market, community title living can be more affordable and manageable than buying a traditional house. It offers independence without the maintenance burden of a standalone home.
- Stronger Community Connections: Shared living doesn’t mean sacrificing privacy. In fact, it can mean gaining a sense of community. With shared spaces and regular interactions, residents often build friendships and enjoy a more connected, social lifestyle.
- Potential for Increased Property Value: Well-managed community title properties can retain and even grow in value over time. Upgrades to common areas, well-kept facilities, and active community engagement all contribute to a property’s long-term appeal.
Common Property and Lot Ownership Explained
When buying into a Community Title Scheme (CTS) in Queensland, it’s essential to understand the difference between what you privately own and what’s shared with your neighbours.
In a community title scheme, the property is split into:
- Private lots: Areas owned exclusively by individual owners
- Common property: Shared spaces jointly owned by all lot owners
When you purchase a lot, you own that specific space outright and have exclusive rights to use it. However, all the areas outside your lot, like driveways, gardens, and stairwells, are owned collectively by all owners as tenants in common. Your share in this common property is proportional to your interest schedule lot entitlement, and it’s inseparable from your lot ownership.
What Is Considered Common Property?
Common property includes all areas outside of the private lot boundaries, such as:
- Shared driveways and carparks
- Elevators, stairways, foyers, and hallways
- Gardens, lawns, and shared landscaping
- Swimming pools, BBQ areas, and recreational facilities
- Tennis courts or golf courses (in larger estates)
- Mailboxes and communal bins
- Infrastructure like plumbing, wiring, and pipes that service multiple lots, even if they pass through your unit
What Do You Actually Own as an Individual Lot Owner?
When you buy a property in a CTS, you own a specific lot as defined on the registered survey plan. That’s your private space, and with it comes both rights and responsibilities, like paying levies, following by-laws, and maintaining any areas you’re responsible for.
If you want exclusive access to part of the common property, like a courtyard or car space? That requires a formal agreement through the Community Management Statement, giving you exclusive use rights.
Lot Type Matters: Building Format vs Standard Format Plans
Your maintenance responsibilities and ownership boundaries depend on the type of survey plan your scheme is registered under:
Building Format Plan (BFP):
Common in multi-storey buildings like apartments. Lot boundaries usually run through the centre of walls, floors, and ceilings.
- The body corporate maintains the building’s exterior, roof, foundations, and structural elements.
- You maintain internal fixtures and fittings within your unit.
Standard Format Plan (SFP):
Typical for townhouse or detached housing developments. Boundaries are marked horizontally on the ground, often with pegs or fences.
- You own the entire structure and any yard within your lot.
- You maintain exterior walls, the roof, and outdoor areas within your boundary.
This distinction is important. For example, roof repairs are your responsibility in a standard format plan, but fall under the body corporate’s duties in a building format plan.
Community Title Scheme (CTS) Surveying: Why It Matters and How It Works
Community Title Scheme surveying might not sound exciting, but it’s one of the most important steps in making a community title property legally sound, well-managed, and ready to live in. Whether you’re buying into a townhouse complex, a high-rise unit block, or a commercial development, surveying lays the foundation for everything from ownership rights to dispute resolution.
Community Title Scheme (CTS) surveying (often referred to as strata surveying or a Building Format Plan) is the process of dividing a development into individually owned lots and shared common property. This legal surveying work sets out the exact boundaries of each private lot and common area, creating a framework that allows the scheme to be registered with Titles Queensland.
Depending on the type of property (land or buildings), surveyors apply different techniques to map and measure spaces with absolute precision.
A complete CTS survey usually includes:
- Lots: Individually owned spaces such as an apartment, townhouse, or even part of a commercial building
- Common Property: Shared spaces such as driveways, gardens, pools, or hallways
- Community Management Statement (CMS): A legal document (usually drafted by a solicitor or body corporate company) outlining the by-laws, lot entitlements, and use of shared spaces
- Body Corporate Formation: The survey helps form this legal entity, which manages common areas and ensures the smooth operation of the scheme
The Role of a Professional Surveyor
Surveyors play a critical role in CTS creation. Their work involves:
- Defining lot boundaries within buildings or land subdivisions
- Mapping shared common areas, such as driveways, stairwells, gardens, or shared walls
- Preparing legal documents and technical plans, such as the Plan of Survey, Service Location Diagram and Exclusive Use Area Sketch (for areas like private courtyards or car parks)
For buildings, surveyors measure internal dimensions of constructed dwellings, typically from the centreline of walls. Depending on the structure’s complexity, they may use distance lasers, 3D scanners, or traditional survey equipment.
Queensland surveyors generally prepare one of two types of CTS documentation:
- Building Format Plan (BFP): Used in multi-storey buildings, where boundaries are defined by structural elements like walls, floors, and ceilings.
- Standard Format Plan (SFP): Ideal for townhouse complexes or detached dwellings, where lot boundaries are mapped horizontally using ground markers or fences.
The Benefits of Accurate Community Title Scheme Surveying
- Clear Definition of Boundaries: Surveying ensures everyone knows exactly what they own and what they share. It precisely marks lot boundaries to show what’s considered private property, and it clearly identifies common property areas such as driveways, gardens, and shared facilities. This clarity helps prevent misunderstandings and avoids costly legal disputes over boundary lines or access rights.
- Efficient Scheme Management: Accurate surveying plays a vital role in helping the body corporate manage shared areas and assets effectively. It ensures that records of lot and common property boundaries are correct and up to date, supports the Community Management Statement (CMS) and other legal documentation, and enables informed decision-making when it comes to maintenance, improvements, and long-term planning.
- Enhancing Property Value: Well-defined and well-documented properties tend to inspire greater buyer confidence, leading to potentially stronger resale value. Clear surveying also ensures accurate lot entitlements, which directly impact each owner’s share of levies, voting rights, and insurance contributions—key factors that affect the appeal and worth of a property.
- Legal Compliance and Consumer Protection: Surveying ensures the scheme complies with Queensland’s legal requirements under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997. This legal compliance supports flexible living arrangements and ensures a fair allocation of costs across owners. Accurate surveying, combined with the broader legislative framework, also helps protect consumers by giving them confidence in what they are purchasing or investing in.
- Access to Shared Amenities: Surveying plays an essential role in mapping out shared amenities such as pools, gyms, landscaped gardens, or recreational areas. These common facilities are maintained in a fair, consistent, and legally supported way, enhancing the overall lifestyle benefits for owners and contributing to a sense of community within the scheme.
Key Takeaways
Community title schemes have truly reshaped how many people live and work in Queensland, offering a practical and modern alternative to traditional freehold titles. While the ownership structure may be more complex than standalone properties, these schemes provide an excellent option for those seeking community-focused living with shared facilities and shared maintenance responsibilities.
Whether you’re buying, managing, or developing a property within a community title scheme, accurate surveying is essential to define boundaries, support legal compliance, and ensure smooth administration.
If you’re involved in a community title scheme or planning one, partnering with expert surveyors is a vital step toward success. At Level Up Surveying, we specialise in delivering cutting-edge surveying solutions across the Sunshine Coast. From residential developments to large-scale projects, we provide precise and reliable data that empowers our clients to make smart decisions and achieve real results.
