Every year, the body corporate manager professional association in Queensland holds a conference. We have just returned from Cairns where the body corporate manager conference was held in early March.
One of the interesting presentations was given by Macquarie Bank. Macquarie bank are a substantial provider of banking services to the strata industry through their DEFT levy system. They are well placed to advise the body corporate management industry in Queensland of how we are tracking. Here are a few of their insights which they derived after conducting their yearly survey of the industry.
The average revenue per lot received by a body corporate manager in Queensland in 2022 was $449 (This is inclusive of insurance commissions). Only 6% of body corporate businesses in Queensland offer an inclusive fee service (we are one of them). The majority of body corporate businesses sell their services on a base fee (on average $240 per lot in Queensland) and then generate substantial additional revenue through disbursements and tasks that are not an inclusion of their body corporate management contract. Without analysis, lot owners may often vote for what appears to be the ‘cheapest quote’.
Feedback from our body corporate clients suggests that it can be difficult to control, identify and/or comprehend the additional invoices that a body corporate manager charges a body corporate. Our clients like our mostly inclusive flat fee approach and the knowledge that when we are about to undertake additional fee-for-service work they will have been told before we start those tasks. Have a look at this example of a body corporate manager that charges on a base fee basis.