27,419 NSW Strata Schemes Are Now Exempt From Annual Reporting. Here's Where They Are.
Since 1 October, two-lot schemes no longer have to report to the Strata Hub. Statewide that is 31% of schemes. LGA by LGA it runs from 5% to 75% — and the line falls almost exactly where professional strata management begins.
A statewide figure that describes almost nowhere
Since 1 October, the owners corporation of a two-lot strata scheme no longer has to give its annual information to the Strata Hub. The Strata Schemes Management Amendment Regulation 2026 drew the line on lot count alone, with no other condition.
Across the state, that takes 27,419 of the 88,210 active schemes in our register capture out of annual reporting — 31.1%. We covered the mechanics when the regulation was published. This piece is about where it lands. The rule is the same in every local government area (LGA). How much of each local register it covers is not, and almost no LGA looks like the statewide figure.
Among the 63 LGAs with at least 200 active strata schemes, the two-lot share runs from 5.2% to 75.1%. The median is 38.1%.
Where most of the register is now exempt
In 16 of those 63 LGAs, two-lot schemes make up more than half of all strata schemes. The exemption applies statewide, but in these 16 it means most of the local register no longer has to file an annual report with the Strata Hub.
Lismore leads at 75.1% — 387 of its 515 active schemes. Then Camden at 72.8%, Tweed at 67.5%, Ballina at 63.6% and the Mid-Coast at 63.2%. Fourteen of the 16 are regional, from the Northern Rivers to Albury. The other two, Camden and Hawkesbury, sit on Sydney's outer edge.
At the other end, two-lot schemes are 5.2% of active schemes in the City of Sydney, 7.0% in Canterbury-Bankstown, and 7.6% in both Bayside and Strathfield. In those markets the annual reporting record is almost untouched.
By lots, the gap is wider still
Scheme counts overstate the change, because a two-lot scheme is the smallest kind there is. By lots, two-lot schemes are 5.4% of the state.
In Lismore they hold 774 of 1,666 strata lots — 46.5%. In the City of Sydney they hold 232 of 115,177, or 0.2%.
In the city, the exemption removes a sliver of strata lots from annual reporting. In Lismore it removes close to half of all strata lots.
The line falls where management begins
For strata managers the more useful finding is where the line sits relative to their own market.
In our May 2026 capture — the last before managing agent details were withdrawn from public search — 9.1% of two-lot schemes had a managing agent recorded. At three lots the figure is 58.2%. At four lots it is 72.5%, and at ten lots or more, 95.6%.
No other step in that curve comes close. The jump from two lots to three is 49 points. From three to four it is 14.
The regulation has removed annual reporting almost exactly at the boundary of the managed market. Of the 54,143 active schemes with an agent recorded, 2,501 have two lots — 4.6%. Among corporate groups with 50 or more managed schemes in the capture, none has more than 31.3% of its portfolio in two-lot schemes.
Across the 16 LGAs where two-lot schemes are the majority, about one two-lot scheme in 18 has an agent recorded. In the Northern Rivers, where the share is highest, almost none do: six of Lismore's 387, 11 of Ballina's 1,054 and 24 of Tweed's 1,699.
What it means
For most strata managers the direct effect is small: a compliance task leaves the service for a few per cent of the book.
The larger effect is on the record. In those 16 LGAs, most strata schemes are no longer required to give the Strata Hub their annual information — the AGM date, the managing agent, the insured replacement value. They are also the markets where the record was already thin: 55.3% of Lismore's two-lot schemes had no AGM date on the register by May.
Anyone trying to measure strata in those markets — a manager weighing a regional acquisition, a council planning for duplex growth, an insurer pricing a region — now works from an annual record that covers a quarter of the schemes in Lismore and nearly all of them in the City of Sydney.
All manager and AGM figures describe the register as captured in May 2026. A two-lot scheme that has appointed an agent since then still appears here as having none. LGAs with fewer than 200 active schemes are excluded from the ranking.
About UNDA Management
UNDA Management provides market intelligence for strata managers — 88,000+ active NSW schemes mapped, every manager linked, every contract cycle tracked. Our sister product, UNDA Development, provides precedent intelligence for property developers and property planning consultants. Learn more at unda.technology
