According to realestate.com.au, buyers are swooning over Canberra's oldest apartment building — a near-century-old Kenneth Oliphant-designed block with Tudor beams and an open fire that modern stock simply cannot replicate. The emotional pull is understandable. But before exchange, savvy buyers need to ask a harder question: what does the strata insurance actually cover, and who pays when something in an older building goes wrong?
What Makes Heritage Strata Buildings an Insurance Category of Their Own
Heritage and character apartment buildings like the Kenneth Oliphant-designed block in Canberra are not treated the same way as modern strata developments by insurers. Buildings approaching or exceeding 100 years of age use materials — hardwood timber, lath-and-plaster walls, single-skin brick, open fireplaces — that are expensive to source, slow to reinstate, and often subject to heritage council conditions that mandate like-for-like restoration. Standard strata building insurance policies are typically priced against contemporary construction costs. When a heritage building suffers fire, water, or storm damage, the gap between a standard sum insured and the actual cost of heritage-compliant reinstatement can be substantial.
For additional market context, see REAStats property market data.
This matters because strata insurance in Australia — governed by each state and territory's strata legislation — is compulsory for the body corporate, but the adequacy of that cover is not regulated. A body corporate can legally hold a policy that under-insures the building, and individual lot owners bear the consequences through special levies when a claim falls short. In a heritage building, the risk of under-insurance is structurally higher than in a newly built block, because heritage reinstatement costs escalate faster than CPI and are rarely captured in a standard annual index-linked policy review.
For buyers of heritage apartments in Canberra — or indeed in any capital city where interwar and Edwardian stock is attracting strong demand — the practical first step is to obtain the current strata insurance certificate of currency and compare the sum insured against an independent heritage building replacement valuation. Bodies corporate are not required to commission these valuations annually, and many older strata schemes rely on outdated figures. A buyer's agent can assist in identifying these discrepancies during due diligence; see our guide on what a buyer's agent does for a breakdown of the pre-purchase checks they typically conduct.
For a deeper comparison of how strata title ownership differs from freehold in terms of shared responsibilities — including insurance obligations — the Strata Title vs Torrens Title Explained guide sets out the key distinctions clearly. In a Torrens title house, you control your own building insurance. In strata, you are dependent on the body corporate's decisions — including its choice of insurer, sum insured, and policy excess.
Three Strata Insurance Gaps Worth Considering in Heritage Buildings
Heritage charm creates specific insurance gaps that buyers of older apartment buildings can underestimate. The first is the fixtures and fittings gap. Original features — timber panelling, pressed-metal ceilings, decorative cornices, open fireplaces — are classified differently by different insurers. Some policies treat original fixtures as part of the building (covered by strata insurance); others treat them as lot owner improvements (covered only by a contents or lot-owner policy). In a building like the Oliphant-designed Canberra block, where the heritage character is precisely what buyers are paying a premium to own, the reinstatement cost of original fixtures after a fire could be substantial — and potentially uncovered if the policy wording is ambiguous.
The second gap is excess-on-excess exposure. Heritage building claims are rarely small. A burst pipe that soaks through lath-and-plaster walls may require full wall removal, asbestos management (common in pre-1980s construction), and heritage-compliant reinstatement. Strata building insurance policies carry a single excess applied at the building level — but the body corporate can then pass that excess back to the lot owner whose negligence caused the claim. In older buildings with ageing plumbing and electrical systems, the probability of a claim originating within a particular lot is materially higher than in a new build. Lot owners should hold their own lot-owner liability insurance — a separate product from strata building cover — to protect against this scenario.
The third gap is loss of rent. If a heritage apartment is rendered uninhabitable by a covered event, strata building insurance may include loss of rent cover for the body corporate — but this is not automatically extended to individual lot owners who rent out their apartments. Landlords in strata buildings need a dedicated landlord insurance policy that covers loss of rent from their specific lot, sitting alongside the body corporate's strata building policy. Many buyers who purchase a heritage apartment as an investment property assume the body corporate policy covers everything — it does not.
In heritage strata buildings, the combination of aged materials, heritage reinstatement obligations, and shared insurance governance creates a layered risk profile that no single standard policy fully addresses. Buyers who focus only on the purchase price and ignore the insurance structure can face significant out-of-pocket costs after a major claim.
Background: Strata Insurance and the Canberra Market
Canberra has a distinctive apartment market shaped by the ACT's leasehold land tenure system and a constrained supply of character stock. Older apartment buildings — particularly those designed by notable architects like Kenneth Oliphant, whose work defined much of Canberra's interwar residential character — attract buyers drawn to their authenticity and near-century-old appeal. That scarcity creates strong price support but also concentrates ownership risk: when a heritage building suffers major damage, there are few comparable replacement properties, and reinstatement under heritage council oversight can be a lengthy process.
Understanding how your mortgage interacts with strata insurance is also relevant here. Lenders require evidence of strata building insurance as a condition of settlement, but they do not verify that the sum insured is adequate — only that a policy exists. Buyers financing a heritage apartment purchase should review our guide on
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or property investment advice.
