Strata Management in Devonport
Last updated October 2026
Strata and body corporate management in Devonport
Devonport is the regional centre of Tasmania's north-west, with a population of around 25,000, and it is in the middle of the largest change to its built form in decades. We act as strata managers for bodies corporate and company title schemes there, and along the coast, from our Hobart office.
Why does Devonport matter for strata right now?
Because a lot of new strata is being created. The Living City program is one of the largest urban renewal projects undertaken in regional Tasmania, with an estimated $250 million in construction investment. Its later stages turn the Mersey River waterfront into a mixed precinct of hotels, restaurants, open space and residential apartments, including apartment levels sitting above public parking. Alongside it, the Spirit of Tasmania terminal redevelopment is reshaping the port. Devonport is also one of the three cities in the Northern Cities Major Development Initiative.
Every apartment building and mixed-use development in that program becomes a body corporate on the day the strata plan is registered. How well it is set up in the first year largely determines whether the owners spend the next decade running a building or arguing about one.
What goes wrong when a new scheme is set up badly?
The same four things, almost every time. Budgets pitched too low in year one, usually to help a sales campaign, which leaves the scheme underfunded from the start. Sums insured taken from the contract price rather than a reinstatement valuation. By-laws adopted off the shelf that do not suit the building, which is particularly damaging in a mixed-use scheme where residents and commercial tenancies need different rules. And a first annual general meeting that is not properly convened, which puts every decision made at it in doubt.
Under the Strata Titles Act 1998 the original proprietor must call and hold the first annual general meeting within three months of the strata plan being registered, or once at least half the lots have been sold, whichever comes first. That deadline arrives sooner than most developers expect. We work with developers from the plan stage through to establishment, which is considerably cheaper than repairing a scheme afterwards.
Does the coastal location change anything?
It changes the maintenance arithmetic. Buildings near the coast carry more exposure to salt and weather, which shortens the life of external paint and coatings, metal balustrades and fixings, roof fasteners and window hardware. None of that is dramatic in any one year, and that is exactly why it gets deferred. A north-west coastal scheme should be putting more into its sinking fund than an equivalent inland building of the same age, and a maintenance schedule set on inland assumptions will run short.
How do you service the north-west from Hobart?
Openly and on stated terms. Our office is in Hobart and we do not pretend otherwise. The administrative work of a body corporate, which is most of it, is done the same way wherever the building is: meetings, levies, arrears, insurance, records, compliance, coordinating trades. Site attendance and contractor arrangements are agreed with the scheme in advance, and we will set out exactly how your scheme would be serviced before you appoint us. If we are not the right fit for a particular building we will say so.
Related reading
Body corporate fees in Tasmania · What the Strata Titles Act 1998 requires · Buying into a Tasmanian strata scheme · Support for developers
We also manage schemes in Hobart and Launceston.
Talk to us about your scheme
STM has managed Tasmanian bodies corporate from a Hobart office since 1989, and we take no commissions from insurers, developers or contractors. Call 03 6231 2540 or send us the details of your scheme and we will tell you plainly what it would cost to manage and what changing over would involve.