Buying company title, eyes open
The price discount is real, and it prices the friction
Company title flats often trade below equivalent strata space, sometimes usefully below. That discount is the market pricing the thinner buyer pool, the larger deposits and the board approvals.
For a buyer with the deposit and the patience, it can be genuine value; for a buyer needing high-ratio lending, it is usually the wrong stock.
The buying process differs
Settlement is a share transfer rather than a land title transfer, your conveyancer reviews a constitution rather than strata by-laws, and where the constitution gives the board approval rights over purchasers, that approval becomes part of your timeline.
None of this is exotic to professionals who handle it regularly, the key is engaging ones who do.
Where you'll meet it
Company title survives mostly in older blocks across the inner suburbs, it comes up regularly around Marrickville and appears among the older flats of villages like Summer Hill and Petersham. Listings don't always lead with the title type; the contract always states it. Check before you attach.
Conversion to strata
Some company-title buildings eventually convert to strata, which typically lifts values by widening the buyer pool.
A block held on one title with no strata or company structure is covered in units on one title. Conversion needs shareholder consensus, legal work and money, so treat it as a possibility rather than a plan, but a building actively progressing conversion is a different proposition from one that has never discussed it. The minutes will tell you which you're looking at.
