Torrens title and strata title, the difference

When a project puts more than one dwelling on a site, the question of title follows close behind. Will each dwelling sit on its own lot of land, or will the dwellings share a site as lots in a scheme?

In New South Wales the two common answers are Torrens title and strata title. A third, community title, is used on larger developments with shared facilities.

Torrens title

Torrens title is the standard form of land ownership in NSW, registered under the Real Property Act 1900. The owner holds a defined lot of land and everything built on it.

Dividing a site into Torrens lots needs development consent, and a subdivision certificate before the new plan is registered with NSW Land Registry Services. Each new lot needs its own legal access and its own service connections.

A Torrens-titled dwelling is simple to hold, sell or refinance on its own, because nothing on the lot is shared with a neighbour.

Strata title

Strata title divides a building or a site into lots, usually one per dwelling, plus common property. It is governed by the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 and the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015.

Each owner holds their lot. The common property, which can include the driveway, shared paths, gardens, fences and services, belongs to the owners corporation, and every lot owner is part of it. The owners corporation sets levies to maintain the common property and makes by-laws on how it is used.

A strata plan is registered with NSW Land Registry Services once a strata certificate has been issued by the council or a registered certifier. Strata suits a site where dwellings share a driveway, an arrival point or a garden, because those shared parts then have a clear owner and a clear budget for upkeep.

What it means for special-use accommodation

Special-use projects often put several dwellings on one site, such as SDA villas along a shared driveway or detached dwellings on a subdivided lot. The title structure decides how those dwellings are owned once complete, and it is settled early, because it shapes the planning application, the site layout and the services design. The planning side is set out in planning pathways for special-use accommodation in NSW.

Accessibility runs across the title boundaries. A level path between parking and each front door, a shared arrival point or a common garden has to be designed, built and then maintained, and under strata the owners corporation looks after any of it that sits on common property.

The financier's view

For a lender, title is about security and exit. Separately titled dwellings can be valued, sold or refinanced one at a time, which gives a project more than one way to repay its debt. A single title over the whole site ties the value of every dwelling to one transaction.

That is one reason the title structure belongs in the first conversation with a financier, alongside the programme and the cost certainty set out in what de-risks a modular project for a financier.

How it fits a modular programme

The subdivision and the build run on separate tracks, and both have to arrive together at the end. The certificate that allows the plan to be registered depends on the finished work, so its timing is planned with the end of construction instead of being left until after handover.

A site where one dwelling type repeats suits the factory and the title plan alike, with lots set out around a design that is built many times, as covered in multi-dwelling projects and the value of repetition.

MADEmodular / MADEbetter.

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