The freedom of self-management, with the support of a manager.
Self-managed vs Quarter| Compared | A strata manager | Quarter |
|---|---|---|
| The fee | A strata manager: A per-lot fee, plus a minimum for small schemes | Quarter: $12 a lot a month |
| On top | A strata manager: Disbursements, extra meetings, certificates: 20–50% more | Quarter: Nothing. Meetings, notices and certificates are in the price |
| Insurance | A strata manager: A commission, about 20% of the base premium | Quarter: No commission, on anything |
| Answers | A strata manager: Office hours, by email | Quarter: Any hour, by email, WhatsApp or the web |
| The records | A strata manager: In the manager's system | Quarter: The building's own, a login for every owner |
| The bank account | A strata manager: A trust account the manager runs | Quarter: A trust account Quarter runs, visible to every owner |
| The contract | A strata manager: Usually one to three years | Quarter: Month to month, no exit fee |
| Who decides | A strata manager: Often feels like the manager | Quarter: The owners and the committee |
Everything Quarter does is one plan, priced by the lot, and the price per lot falls as the building grows. The first 30 days are free.
$12 per lot per month, less as you grow
The whole of Quarter, for the committee and every owner.
For every owner
Governance
Finance
No commission, no per-meeting charges, no disbursements and no lock-in. Month to month.
A real building, anonymised
About 80 lots in New South Wales. In September 2026 someone in the building asked Quarter to add up what it pays its strata manager, from the building's own statements and insurance invoices.
The management fee on the budget was about what Quarter charges a building that size for the whole year. By late September the manager had been paid more than twice that.
In Victoria, commission and disbursements alone average $147 a lot a year. That is more than Quarter's whole price, per lot, at any size.
| The line | Typically | Where it hides | With Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance commission | Typically: About 20% of the base premium. Victoria's average is $91 a lot a year. | Where it hides: Inside the premium. At best, a line in the disclosures at the AGM. | With Quarter: No commission, on anything. |
| Disbursements | Typically: Victoria averages $56 a lot a year. In Queensland they add 60 to 80% to the base fee. | Where it hides: Printing, postage, photocopying and "administration". | With Quarter: Notices, agendas and minutes go out by email, and by post to any owner who prefers it, at no extra charge. |
| Software and portal fees | Typically: $2 to $8 a lot a month, recovered from the building. | Where it hides: "Management software", "owner portal", "technology fee". | With Quarter: Replaced outright. Every owner gets a login, in the price. |
| Extra meetings | Typically: $150 to $400 a meeting, and 25 to 100% more after hours. | Where it hides: The fee schedule. Schedule B, in New South Wales. | With Quarter: Hosted and minuted inside the plan, however many you hold. |
| Certificates on a sale | Typically: About $120 in New South Wales, $150 to $200 in Victoria, $86.95 in Queensland. | Where it hides: Charged to the selling owner, so the committee never sees it. | With Quarter: Victoria's and Western Australia's certificates are produced from Quarter's records, and New South Wales's and Queensland's information is assembled for their approved forms. Other states not yet. |
| Arrears notices | Typically: $60 to $120 a notice. | Where it hides: Recovered from the owner who is behind. | With Quarter: Levy reminders go out automatically, as part of Finance. |
| Insurance claims | Typically: $100 to $250 a claim. | Where it hides: The fee schedule. | With Quarter: Tracked on the compliance dashboard, nothing per claim. |
| Professional time | Typically: $180 to $350 an hour. | Where it hides: The fee schedule. | With Quarter: Not something software replaces. When you need a person, we quote it up front. |
Sources, all 2026: the Macquarie Strata Industry Benchmarking Report as quoted by Inner OC, Compare Strata Managers, StrataClear, Tracsafe, two management firms' own fee guides, and the Queensland and New South Wales governments. Typical figures, not quotes. Your own agreement and your last year's accounts are the real numbers.
What a strata manager really costs in your state, line by line: Victoria , New South Wales , Queensland
How many lots, and where. If you know the management fee on your budget, put it in and we'll use yours, then add what a normal year puts on top of it.
25 lots, Australia
Run on Quarter
$3,600 a year ($300 a month)
25 lots at $12 a month. No commission, no disbursements, nothing per meeting.
You keep $3,900 to $12,900 a year.
That is 52 to 78% less than paying a strata manager, every year the building runs on Quarter.
The management fee is the range published for Australia in 2026, with the minimum a strata manager charges a small scheme and the lower rate they quote a big one. Extras are 20 to 50% of the fee in a normal year. A bad year costs more.
Review your management fees
The calculator is an estimate. The review is the real figure: every dollar your strata manager was paid last year, beside what Quarter would cost the same building, and the service you got for it.
1.
Press “Review our management fees” on its page. Quarter already knows its size and its state, so the estimate is there before you type anything.
2.
Once you've joined: the last statements or budget, the management agreement and the insurance renewal invoice. Quarter reads them and adds up the fee, the extra work, the disbursements and any commission on the insurance.
3.
A poll with the real figures on it, to send round. It binds nobody. When the numbers make the case, the motion to switch to Quarter comes next, and Quarter drafts that too.
The decisions were always yours, and in most buildings so is most of the work. What a strata manager adds is coordination: forwarding, chasing, sending and booking. That is the part Quarter does now, for a fraction of the fee.
| The job | With a strata manager | With Quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding what gets done | With a strata manager: The committee | With Quarter: The committee |
| Answering owners | With a strata manager: The committee, mostly. The strata manager in office hours. | With Quarter: Quarter, at any hour, by email, WhatsApp or the web, with the clause it came from. |
| Chasing contractors and quotes | With a strata manager: The strata manager, once the committee has chased the strata manager. | With Quarter: Quarter emails them from the building's own address and puts their replies on the job. |
| Notices, agendas and minutes | With a strata manager: The strata manager | With Quarter: Quarter drafts them, and the chair signs them off. |
| Levies, arrears and the books | With a strata manager: The strata manager | With Quarter: Levy invoicing, reminders and trust accounting, in Finance. |
| The insurance renewal | With a strata manager: The strata manager, usually for a commission | With Quarter: Quarter, through your broker or ours, with the policy and its dates on the compliance dashboard, and no commission. |
| The records | With a strata manager: The strata manager's system | With Quarter: The building's own, with a login for every owner. |
Most buildings that want to leave their manager think they are stuck until the next AGM. Most are not. Leaving a management agreement is mostly notice periods, dates and a properly called meeting, and Quarter will do the reading.
What leaving a manager actually takes differs by jurisdiction and by what your building's own documents say. Quarter reads both and shows you the clause; it isn't legal advice, and for a contested exit you should get some.
No. Quarter works for Owners Corporations of any size, from a 3-lot townhouse to a 600-lot tower. The price per lot falls as the building grows: $12 per lot per month for the first 50 lots, $8 for the next 50, and $5 for every lot after that.
Everything a strata manager does. Governance: meetings, minutes, compliance and insurance. Finance: budgets, levies, trust accounting and the capital works fund. Every owner gets a login, and the first 30 days are free.
Yes, while you give notice. Send us the management agreement and Quarter will tell you what ending it takes: the notice, the dates and the clauses they come from. The first 30 days are free.
From published 2026 figures: manager fee guides, comparison sites and the Macquarie 2026 Strata Industry Benchmarking Report as quoted by others. They are ranges, not quotes, and every estimate on this page shows the cheap end as well as the dear one. Your own budget is the real number, so put yours into the calculator.
No. Month to month. Cancel any time and your records hand over at no charge, which is not true of every contract you'll compare this against.
Set your building up and invite your neighbours in minutes. The first 30 days are free.