Units and apartments are some of the best buying on the Gold Coast — and some of the most misunderstood when it comes to inspections. Buyers often assume that because a building has a body corporate, the property has somehow been looked after, or that an inspection matters less than it would for a house. The opposite is closer to the truth: the defects that cost unit owners real money are almost all inside the lot, invisible at an open home, and entirely yours from settlement day.

The lot is yours — including its problems

In a strata or company title scheme, the body corporate generally maintains the common property. Everything inside your lot — the walls and ceilings, the wet areas, the balcony surfaces, the fixtures — is generally the owner’s responsibility. When the shower membrane in the ensuite has failed, that is not a body corporate problem. It is the new owner’s problem, usually within weeks of moving in.

That is the core reason a pre-purchase inspection of the unit itself matters. It is the one chance to know the condition of what you are actually buying, in writing, while you can still act on it.

What a unit inspection covers

A combined building and timber pest inspection of a unit, carried out to AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3, covers the building interior of the unit and the building exterior immediately associated with it — wet areas, balconies and courtyards included. Common areas of the building are not part of the inspection, and a records search of the strata scheme is a separate matter your conveyancer arranges. The full scope is set out in the pre-inspection agreement that comes with every booking, and the detail of what we check is on our unit and apartment inspections page.

Where units actually fail

After enough unit inspections, the same findings come up again and again — and they are different findings to houses.

  • Leaking showers and failed wet-area waterproofing — the single most expensive defect a unit commonly hides
  • Flexible hoses under sinks and vanities, a leading cause of internal water damage in apartments
  • Balcony surfaces, drainage and balustrades, especially in older walk-up blocks
  • Corrosion on fixings, balustrades and external steel — accelerated within a few streets of the beach
  • Moisture around window frames and sills, and tired window seals and hardware
  • Termite evidence and conducive conditions in ground-floor and garden-level units

None of these announce themselves at a Saturday open home. Most are found with moisture readings, thermal imaging, a laser level on the floors, and the slow, methodical habit of operating every door, window and tap in the place.

High-rise, walk-up or townhouse — what changes?

All of them get inspected; the emphasis shifts with the building. In the towers of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, the work concentrates on the interior of the lot: wet areas, windows, balconies and the finishes. In the older two- and three-storey walk-ups along the coastal strip, decades-old waterproofing and balcony wear lead the findings. Townhouses and villas add the questions of shared construction — junctions, party walls — plus the courtyard and garden lines where termite activity starts.

Using the report

The written report — photos, plain-English explanations and recommendations — is in your inbox the same day as the inspection. Buyers use it three ways: to proceed with confidence, to negotiate on price or repairs with evidence in hand, or to walk away inside their cooling-off period. All three are good outcomes compared with finding the problems after settlement.

A combined building and pest inspection starts from $350, with a fixed price confirmed before you book. If you have a unit under contract, call 0431 114 815 with the address, or read more in our FAQs — the report will tell you exactly what you are buying.