In a registered strata development, each owner holds a strata lot: the apartment, townhouse or other unit marked and numbered on the strata plan, with its own certificate of title issued by the National Land Agency. Unlike a house lot, its boundaries are usually set in three dimensions, by reference to floors, walls and ceilings, so a lot may sit entirely above or below another.
Ownership of the lot comes bundled with other things that cannot be separated from it. Each lot carries an undivided share in the common property, sized by its unit entitlement, and membership of the strata corporation. The owner is bound by the by-laws and must pay the contributions the corporation levies. When the lot is sold or mortgaged, the share of common property goes with it automatically.
Exactly where a lot ends matters in practice. Whether the plaster, windows, balcony or water tank belong to the owner or to the common property decides who pays for repairs and whose insurance responds. The strata plan and the by-laws are the documents to check, and an attorney or surveyor can interpret them where the drawings are unclear.
In North America the same thing is usually called a condominium unit, and in Australia a lot in a strata scheme.
Related terms: Strata Title, Strata Plan, Common Property, Unit Entitlement, Strata Corporation, Condominium, Lot.
Accurate as at October 2026.
