Australian renters consistently rank security, parking and pet-friendliness above lifestyle amenities, and Sydney developers keep building gyms, pools and rooftop terraces. Both things are true, and the gap between them is where most amenity budgets get wasted.
This is what the available Australian evidence actually says, what it does not say, and how a building manager can tell a used amenity from an admired one.
The scale of the question
Strata is not a niche in New South Wales. The Strata Community Association (NSW) reported 89,049 strata and community title schemes covering 1,043,690 lots in its July 2025 submission to the NSW Net Zero Commission, roughly 95% of them residential. The same submission notes that around 2.5 million Australians live in apartments, 51% of them in NSW, that apartments make up 22% of occupied private dwellings in the state, and that close to one in five NSW residents lives in strata.
So amenity decisions in Sydney apartment buildings are being made for a fifth of the state’s population, largely without published data on what those residents use.
What the research does say
The most recent broad dataset is the CBRE and REA Australian Renter Survey 2026, published in April 2026. At building level it found renters prioritise security, parking and pet-friendliness. REA’s own search data points the same way: pet-friendly, furnished and undercover parking are the terms people actually filter on.
Note what is missing from that list. Not one of the top three is a lifestyle amenity. They are all constraints — things that make a building possible to live in rather than pleasant to look at.
What the research does not say
We could not find a single Australian survey that quantifies demand for in-building laundry or dry cleaning services. Not one. That absence is worth stating plainly, because it means anyone quoting you a percentage on this is either citing US multifamily data or making it up.
What can be said honestly is narrower and more useful: laundry is a weekly constraint in an apartment in a way it is not in a house, and the constraint is physical rather than aspirational.
The amenity mix Sydney is actually building
Absent survey data, the next best proxy is what serious operators put their capital into. Greystar topped out Sydney’s first build-to-rent development — The Bourke at 888 Bourke Street, Zetland, 190 apartments, around $175 million — with structure complete on 30 April 2026. Its amenity provision runs to more than 700 square metres: gym, wellness studio, co-working space, pet spa, dog park, rooftop garden and EV charging.
Twenty-one build-to-rent projects in Sydney have been lodged as State Significant Developments. Mirvac is targeting more than 5,000 BTR apartments through its LIV brand. The amenity arms race is real, and it is expensive: 700 square metres is floor area that could have been let.
Used versus admired
The distinction that matters to a building manager is not what residents say they want in a survey. It is what they touch every week.
| Amenity | Typical usage pattern | Cost to the building |
|---|---|---|
| Secure parking, access control | Daily, by nearly everyone | Capital, built in |
| Parcel room or lockers | Several times a week, by nearly everyone | Capital plus floor area |
| Laundry and dry cleaning collection | Weekly, by those who opt in | Nil where run through an existing desk |
| Gym | Regularly, by a minority | Capital, floor area, maintenance, insurance |
| Pool | Seasonally, by a minority | High capital and high ongoing |
| Co-working space | Variable, often low after the first year | Floor area |
| Pet spa, rooftop terrace, cinema | Occasional; strong at leasing, light in use | Capital and floor area |
The pattern is that the amenities with the highest usage are the ones solving a constraint, and the ones with the highest cost per use are the ones solving a desire. Both have a place — a leasing team needs something to show — but a building that has spent its floor area on the second category and none of its effort on the first has the mix backwards.
Why laundry keeps coming up
Three constraints are close to universal in a Sydney apartment and rare in a house. Most apartments have a European laundry at best and nowhere to dry, and many buildings restrict balcony drying. Doonas, mattress protectors and heavy curtains do not fit a domestic machine at all. And nobody is home in the middle of a weekday, which is when door-to-door services want to deliver.
None of that is aspirational. It is the same problem, every week, for every resident.
The four questions to ask about any proposed amenity
- Does it solve a constraint or satisfy a preference? Constraints get used weekly. Preferences get photographed for the leasing brochure.
- What floor area does it consume permanently? Square metres given to amenity are square metres not let. A service that uses an existing desk consumes none.
- What does it cost the owners corporation to run, insure and maintain? The capital cost is the smaller half. A pool is a levy line forever.
- What approval does it need? Anything installed on common property engages sections 108 and 112 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and usually an exclusive-use by-law. A service that installs nothing does not. We have written that up in detail: does your strata committee need to approve a laundry service?
Frequently asked questions
What amenities do Australian apartment residents want most?
The CBRE and REA Australian Renter Survey 2026 found renters prioritise security, parking and pet-friendliness at building level, and REA search data shows pet-friendly, furnished and undercover parking as the leading filters. Lifestyle amenities such as gyms and pools rank below those.
Is there Australian data on demand for building laundry services?
No published Australian survey quantifies it. The honest case rests on the physical constraints of apartment living rather than on survey data, and on observed usage within individual buildings.
How much amenity space does a Sydney build-to-rent building provide?
Greystar’s development at 888 Bourke Street, Zetland — 190 apartments, structure complete April 2026 — provides more than 700 square metres, including a gym, wellness studio, co-working space, pet spa, dog park, rooftop garden and EV charging.
Which amenities cost the owners corporation the least?
Services run through an existing concierge desk cost nothing in capital, floor area or ongoing maintenance, because the building supplies neither space nor equipment. Pools and gyms sit at the other end.
How many people live in strata in NSW?
The Strata Community Association (NSW) reported 89,049 schemes and 1,043,690 lots in July 2025, with close to one in five NSW residents living in strata.
Sources: Strata Community Association (NSW) submission to the NSW Net Zero Commission, July 2025; CBRE and REA Group Australian Renter Survey 2026, April 2026; Greystar development announcements, April 2026. Figures are quoted as published and dated.
Concierge Dry Cleaners runs laundry and dry cleaning collection through the concierge desks of Sydney apartment buildings, at no cost to the building. See for buildings or laundry service for apartment buildings.