WA strata news, October 2026: the strata law review reaches Phase Two and managers report $976.3M on trust

October is the month to have your say on WA strata law. On 15 October the government opened Phase Two of the five-year review of the Strata Titles Act 1985, with 22 reform topics covering by-laws, proxy votes, council duties, levies, insurance and strata manager fees. Submissions close on 26 November. The same month, Landgate published what strata managers reported for 2025: more schemes, more lots and almost a billion dollars of strata company money held on trust. Councils of owners should read the summary guide, decide which proposals matter to their scheme, and send in a response.

News

Phase Two of the strata law review is open

The State Government is running the statutory five-year review of the Strata Titles Act, with Landgate managing the consultation. Phase One asked what goes wrong in strata schemes and drew more than 1,600 responses. Phase Two, announced on 15 October, puts forward fixes across 22 topics. Landgate says the proposed reforms are ones with broad support that could be brought in early without adding cost to owners. The final recommendations will be tabled in Parliament.

The Phase Two Summary Guide sets out the proposals. The ones most likely to change how a strata company runs:

• Proxies. A developer's proxies would lapse automatically once every lot has been sold and handed over. Options for all proxies include a cap on how many one person can hold (one in schemes of 20 lots or fewer, and no more than 5% in larger schemes), a one-year limit, and owners saying how each proxy vote must be cast.
• By-laws. Options include dropping the split between governance and conduct by-laws, making every by-law change a special resolution, rewriting the default by-laws in plain language and adding standard by-laws on smoke and vape drift.
• Council duties. Councils would get government-prepared information on their duties, members would have to disclose commissions and conflicts of interest, and schemes would get a way to remove members who don't.
• Levies and budgets. Itemised levies, a minimum standard for budgets, notice to owners when a cost runs 20% or more over budget, and payment plans for owners in financial hardship.
• Strata manager fees. A clearer breakdown of fees in management contracts, notice before charges outside the contract, an annual report on commissions and benefits, and a permanent requirement for strata managers to lodge annual returns.
• Short-term rentals. Each strata company would have to settle its position on short-term rentals at its first AGM, and recovering the cost of damage caused by short-stay guests would get easier.
• Insurance. A minimum number of quotes every time cover is taken out or renewed, and a clearer test of what "reasonable steps" to get insurance means.

The paper also floats bigger ideas that need more work before a firm proposal: a Strata Commissioner or other body to mediate disputes before they reach SAT, registration or licensing of strata managers, mandatory audits of trust accounts, and extending the 10-year maintenance plan to schemes of 6 lots or more.

Strata manager rules changed in August

The Strata Titles (General) Amendment Regulations 2026 came into force on 20 August 2026. They change three things in the Strata Titles (General) Regulations 2019:

• More time on experience. Under regulation 97B, a principal of a strata manager needs 2 years of industry experience and a strata community manager needs 1 year. The 2025 transition rules only covered existing staff until 30 October 2026 for strata community managers and 30 October 2027 for principals. Now anyone already in the role before 1 November 2027 is covered until 1 November 2028 (strata community managers) or 1 November 2029 (principals), under the new regulation 97D. Contracts signed before 1 November 2027 don't need the experience warranty that management contracts otherwise carry under section 145.
• A second route for principals. A principal who is a "qualified person", such as a licensed real estate agent, can now meet regulation 95 with a Diploma of Property (Agency Management – Strata) as well as with 6 units of the Certificate IV in Strata Community Management.
• Annual returns to 2030. Regulation 102 now requires strata managers to lodge a return with Landgate for each year to 2030. Returns for 2026 are due by 31 March 2027. Volunteer strata managers don't lodge one.

The education requirements themselves have not moved. From 1 November 2027, a strata community manager needs the full Certificate IV in Strata Community Management and a principal needs the Certificate IV or the Diploma. Qualified persons need fewer units, and savings rules cover people who met the old requirements before 30 October 2025.

Landgate's education page still says existing management contracts must be updated by 30 October 2026. That date came from the 12-month transition rule in the old regulation 97E, which the August regulations replaced. Check with Landgate's strata team before acting on it.

What WA strata managers reported for 2025

Landgate's 2025 annual return results, released on 6 October, come from 121 strata managers. They reported 10,210 schemes with 154,224 lots, up 5% and 4.5% on 2024. Strata company money held on trust rose 48.5% to $976.3M, and insured values rose by $20 billion. On average the industry held $6,330 of strata company money per lot, up from $4,452 in 2024. Landgate says the rise could reflect more schemes being reported or higher costs of strata living, and notes the insured value question is optional.

The figures only cover schemes with a paid strata manager. Landgate's returns captured about 3% of WA's small schemes of up to 5 lots, most of which are self-managed or use a volunteer strata manager, against 95% of schemes with more than 50 lots. If your scheme is self-managed, its money is not in these numbers.

The numbers

Strata titles applications to SAT went back up in 2024/25, to the level of 2022/23. Strata matters made up 20% of applications in SAT's commercial and civil stream, and half of them were finished within 16 weeks.

Most WA schemes are small. On the Land Titles Register, 69,700 of the 80,827 schemes have 5 lots or fewer. Landgate says many of these are self-managed or run by a volunteer strata manager.

New townhouses and apartments are the next strata schemes. WA approvals for them jump around from month to month, with apartment approvals spiking in October 2025 and February 2026.

WA has the fourth-largest number of strata lots in Australia. The national count of 261,660 lots leaves out survey strata, which is why it sits well below the Land Titles Register figure above.

UNSW's conservative estimate puts at least 10% of West Australians in strata. The Planning and Lands Minister put it at around a quarter in the 15 October statement. The two figures use different methods, and the UNSW count leaves out survey strata.

Offers

There are no sponsor offers for WA this month. If your council is working through the Phase Two proposals or getting ready for an AGM, the free UnitBuddy demo shows how a strata company can keep its council records, levies, 10-year maintenance plan and documents in one place.

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