Buying an apartment and renovating one are two very different exercises. You own the inside of your lot, but the walls, floors, pipes and waterproof membranes around it are usually common property, and that is where renovation plans meet the owners corporation. Most Sydney apartment owners find this out late, often after a kitchen has been ordered.
The delay is rarely the building work. It is the paperwork before it.
What strata approval actually is
An apartment sits inside a strata scheme, which means decisions affecting the building as a whole are made collectively rather than by you alone. Renovation work that touches common property, changes waterproofing, alters the building’s appearance or creates noise and access issues for neighbours generally needs sign-off before it starts.
The rules are not identical from one block to the next. Each scheme has its own by-laws, so two owners in neighbouring buildings can get different answers to the same question. This is why a blanket checklist off the internet is a starting point and never the final word.
New South Wales legislation divides renovation work into categories, broadly cosmetic, minor and major, with different consent requirements attached to each. Where a specific job falls is a question for your by-laws and, when the scope is significant, for professional advice.
Work that usually needs approval
Sydney renovation specialists Fine Touch Group publish a breakdown of what typically requires strata sign-off. Their list covers kitchen renovations, bathroom renovations because of waterproofing, flooring changes and hard flooring in particular, structural modifications, electrical and plumbing changes, and anything altering windows or the external appearance of the building.
The pattern is consistent. If the work touches water, structure, services or the look of the building from outside, expect to need approval.
Work that often does not
The same guide lists the jobs that frequently sit outside the approval process: painting internal walls, replacing cabinet hardware, installing light fittings where no rewiring is involved, and minor cosmetic changes.
The company is careful to add that owners should always check their own building’s by-laws, because requirements vary between buildings. That caveat matters more than the list itself.
The documentation is the real work
This is the part owners underestimate. A strata committee is not simply being asked to say yes. It is being asked to satisfy itself that the work is properly specified, properly insured and properly managed.
Fine Touch Group describes preparing detailed plans and specifications, material selections and finishes, waterproofing certificates, trade licences and insurance certificates, a noise management plan, waste disposal arrangements, a project timeline, and access requirements for tradespeople.
Read that list again and the delays make sense. An owner assembling it alone, for the first time, while also choosing tiles, is going to take a while. Committees meet on their own schedule, and an application returned for missing waterproofing details can lose a month before anyone has lifted a tool.
Waterproofing and noise are the two sticking points
Almost every difficult conversation in an apartment renovation traces back to one of two things: water leaving your lot, or noise entering somebody else’s.
Waterproofing is the one that keeps committees awake, because a failed membrane in an upper level apartment becomes the ceiling below’s problem and then becomes an insurance question. Expect detailed specifications and certificates from a licensed waterproofer, not a reassurance.
Noise is more predictable but no less contentious. Buildings set their own working hours, and jackhammering a bathroom floor is not a quiet activity. A noise management plan tells the committee you have thought about the neighbours before they have had to complain.
Budgeting for the whole process
Approval is a timeline cost more than a line item, but it shapes the budget in another way: the specification you submit is the specification you are committing to.
For context on the numbers involved, Fine Touch Group’s published pricing puts a basic kitchen renovation from $31,000, mid-range from $39,000 and premium from $53,000. Bathrooms start from $28,000 for a basic scope. A complete apartment renovation starts from $85,000 for a studio or one-bedroom at basic finish, and from $110,000 for two bedrooms, with figures the company says it updated in August 2026 to reflect current trade and material costs.
These are the company’s own starting figures rather than a market survey, and the final number depends on your scope, your finishes and your building. Treat them as a sense of scale, then get a written fixed-price quote against a defined specification.
Questions worth asking before you appoint anyone
- Have you worked in a strata building of this type before, and can you show me one?
- Who prepares the strata application, you or me?
- Will you attend the committee meeting if they have questions?
- Which parts of this scope need approval, and which do not, under my by-laws?
- What happens to the timeline and the price if the committee asks for changes?
- Who holds the waterproofing certificate at the end, and what does the warranty actually cover?
A contractor who handles apartments routinely will answer these without hesitation. One who mostly renovates houses may not have thought about several of them.
Give the paperwork the time it deserves
The owners who have a smooth apartment renovation are usually the ones who treated approval as the first stage of the project rather than an obstacle in front of it. Read your by-laws early, get your documentation complete before you submit rather than after the committee asks, and be straight with your neighbours about timing.
The building work is the visible part. The approval is what decides whether it starts on time.
