The numbers behind the problem we're solving

It has been a big week. Between a strategy offsite and some meaningful progress on the build, there was also a report that was hard to ignore.

Macquarie Bank's 2026 Strata Industry Benchmarking Report landed in my inbox early in the week. I've read a lot of industry commentary this year, but this was the first time I saw the numbers properly laid out. It draws on over 200 businesses managing 1.4 million lots between them, which Macquarie puts at more than 65% of the industry, so it is about as close to a picture of the whole market as anyone has.

Revenue is growing. Profit isn't.

The headline finding is a gap. In 2025, 77% of businesses grew revenue but only 59% grew profit.

That gap has been widening for a long time. The share of businesses reporting flat or falling profit has gone from 23% in 2012 to 41% in 2025. Median EBITDA has dropped from 23% in 2022 to 19% in 2025, and margins have been sliding since well before that, down from 28% a decade ago.

Revenue per lot, meanwhile, is up sharply, rising 17% since 2022 to $528. So this is not a pricing failure. Businesses are charging more per lot than at any point Macquarie has measured, and keeping less of it.

Where the money is going

Mostly to people, which in a relationship industry is not a scandal.

Salaries have gone from 49% of revenue in 2022 to 52% in 2025, and account for around 68% of total expenses. For the largest businesses, those managing more than 10,000 lots, salaries run to 71% of expenses.

The pressure behind that number is retention. Strata manager turnover was 24% in 2025. That is down from a peak of 33% in 2022, but it is still well above the national employment average of around 15%, and it is more than triple the 2018 rate. Nearly 70% of businesses are already paying above market. Senior strata manager remuneration has risen 28% since 2022, junior roles 46%.

Paying more has not fixed it, which suggests the problem was never really about pay.

And growth is getting harder to buy

Total lots under management grew 4.2% in 2025, but almost none of that went to the biggest firms. Businesses managing more than 10,000 lots went backwards, at minus 0.7%. Growth is concentrated in the smaller and mid-sized end.

With development slowing, the firms that historically grew through developer pipelines are now competing for schemes that already have a manager. Meanwhile the schemes themselves are getting harder to run. Average building size has gone from 29 lots per plan in 2022 to 37 in 2025.

More complexity per plan, more competition per client, more of every revenue dollar going to salaries.

The one in five who aren't in this position

The most useful part of the report is the group Macquarie classifies as higher performers, being roughly one in five respondents, defined by growing lots under management while holding onto their strata managers.

The comparison is stark. They run a 26% margin against 19%. They grew lots 12% against 5%. They retained 83% of their strata managers against 76%. And salaries take 44% of their revenue rather than 60%, despite paying their senior managers more, not less.

Productivity explains part of it, at 409 lots per FTE against 382, but the bigger difference is structural: strata managers make up 42% of their headcount rather than 55%. They keep the expensive, relationship-holding roles lean and well supported, and put the administrative load somewhere else.

One caution before anyone treats that as a formula. Even the outperformers are being squeezed. Their median EBITDA was 42% in 2018. By 2025 it was 26%.

What I take from it

Strata managers aren't dropping the ball. The job has just become heavier, more complex, and less forgiving without much around it changing.

That last clause is the part I keep coming back to. Every input has moved: buildings are bigger, compliance is heavier, owner expectations are higher, wages are up. What hasn't moved is the machinery underneath. Macquarie's own read is that operational efficiency is now the top focus area for 81% of businesses, and the top challenge for 49%, which is what it looks like when an industry has run out of room on every other lever.

The full report is worth your time. There is gold littered throughout.

Source

• 2026 Macquarie Strata Industry Benchmarking Report (PDF). Figures cited above are Macquarie's.