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VIC · Apartments

Apartment depreciation schedules in Victoria

An apartment in a mid- or high-rise building carries a larger building deduction per square metre than a standard house. Its share of a concrete frame, a basement car park, lifts, lobbies and fire services is priced at a higher rate per square metre than a house's, and the common plant (lifts, pumps, access control, the gym and pool) is substantial.

Rate per m², VIC 2015
$2,127
Apartment built 2015
$171,880
Deduction a year
$4,297

What an apartment cost to build in Victoria

For an 85 m² apartment in a high-rise building, at VIC rates, excluding the plant listed separately. The capital works deduction is 2.5% of this cost a year for 40 years from completion, and a buyer claims what is left.

Indicative construction cost of an 85 m² apartment in a high-rise building by year built, VIC
Year builtRate per m²Construction cost2.5% a yearYears left
1990$1,065
$81,480
$2,0374
1995$1,117
$86,692
$2,1679
2000$1,272
$99,787
$2,49514
2005$1,752
$140,024
$3,50119
2010$1,877
$151,117
$3,77824
2015$2,127
$171,880
$4,29729
2020$2,183
$176,805
$4,42034
2025$2,771
$225,282
$5,63239

Indicative, from the Ezy Depreciation cost database ledger-catalogue-2026-11-02. Years left are full income years from the current one, taking completion as 30 June of the year built.

An apartment built in 1997, a year the table leaves out, cost about $88,550 at VIC rates ($1,138 per m²), so about $2,214 a year at 2.5% for the 11 years left of its 40: see depreciation on a property built in 1997 for a standard house that year in every state. The table ends with 2025, the latest year our national series rests on a published figure for, so an apartment built since, in 2026, is shown here at 2025's rates until its own year's are published: about $225,282 at VIC rates, so about $5,632 a year at 2.5% over its 40 years.

How Victoria compares

In our cost database, Victoria is the third cheapest of Australia's states and territories to build an apartment in. Built in 2025, an 85 m² apartment in a high-rise building cost about $225,282 at VIC rates ($2,771 per m²), $7,244 less than it would at the national benchmark rate of $2,860 per m², so its capital works deduction is about $181 a year lower.

The next dearer is New South Wales at $2,780 per m², and the next cheaper Queensland at $2,751 per m². The same apartment would have cost $58,697 more in the Northern Territory, the dearest, and $10,896 less in South Australia, the cheapest.

Between 2015 and 2025 the cost of building the same apartment in Victoria rose from $171,880 to $225,282, 31% more, so the deduction for one completed in 2025 is about $1,335 a year more than for one completed in 2015, with 10 more years of its 40 to run.

Capital works in an apartment

Division 43, at 2.5% a year for 40 years

  1. 1The apartment's own fit-out: kitchen, bathrooms, joinery, tiling, internal doors, the balcony's balustrade and screens
  2. 2Its share of the building: the concrete frame and slabs, the façade, the basement car park, lobbies, corridors, lift shafts, plant rooms, the roof
  3. 3Its share of the common plant: lifts, fire detection and hose reels, car park doors, access control and intercom, water pumps, the pool's pump and filter, gym equipment
  4. 4Renovations inside the apartment: a new kitchen or bathroom is capital works from the date it was finished, at 2.5% for 40 years if it was begun after 15 September 1987. What a renovation does to the plant and works it replaces

Plant typically found in an apartment

Division 40, each at its effective life; new at today's prices

Not in the total: ducted air conditioning, priced as a whole house's ducted system supplied and installed, not as one in an 85 m² apartment in a high-rise building, at the packaged unit's 15 years. It includes the ductwork, which is capital works at 2.5% a year, not plant, and no price we hold gives its share.

Deductible if bought new for the property while it is let; if it came with a second-hand property acquired since 9 May 2017, or was used while the property was the owner's home, generally not for an individual, though still valued for the capital gain. In a holiday apartment its owner also stays in, even plant bought new since 9 May 2017 is generally not deductible once that private use is not occasional, from the income year it begins (section 40-27). Common plant is shared by unit entitlement.

An apartment tower's common plant and the owners corporation in Victoria

An apartment in Victoria is a lot in a scheme run by its owners corporation under the Owners Corporations Act 2006. The owners corporation holds the records, insures the building and levies the owners; it does not claim the building's deductions for them: each owner claims their own apartment and their share of everything common.

In a high-rise that share is small and the common plant is large. At 8 of 1,000 entitlements, the share of a lift costing about $45,029 installed is $360; of the booster pumps, fire hose reels, access control, CCTV, the car park gate, the gym and the pool's pump and filter, $48 or less each. Together the items in the table come to about $468 for that share, nearly all of it deducted at once or pooled.

The share of the structure is where an apartment's deduction lies: the concrete frame, basement, lift shafts and plant rooms are what make its rate per m² the highest of any dwelling. Built in 2025 at VIC rates, an 85 m² apartment in a high-rise building cost about $225,282 ($2,771 per m², before the plant the builder installs, priced as plant, is taken out), about $5,632 a year, where the same floor area in a unit in a walk-up block in Victoria cost about $174,209 ($2,149 per m²). A façade re-clad later is a new capital work, its share claimed at 2.5% for 40 years from its completion; a lift replaced is new plant, its share deducted over the lift's effective life (or pooled, or at once, by the share's cost); a special levy's share for either is claimed the same way, and levies paid into the owners corporation's administrative fund are generally an expense of the year.

A 0.8% share of a high-rise's common plant, one of each, priced new
ItemCostLifeThe shareDeducted
Lift$45,02930 yrs$360in the low-value pool
Booster pump (multi-storey)$5,98020 yrs$48deducted at once, generally
Fire hose reel$89710 yrs$7deducted at once, generally
Access door controller$8975 yrs$7deducted at once, generally
CCTV recorder$5984 yrs$5deducted at once, generally
Gate motor$1,80510 yrs$14deducted at once, generally
Gym cardio machine$1,4955 yrs$12deducted at once, generally
Pool pump$72110 yrs$6deducted at once, generally
Pool filter$1,01710 yrs$8deducted at once, generally

Indicative, at our cost database's installed prices, those of the lift, the fire hose reel, the access door controller and the gym cardio machine our own estimates, not observed prices; a building has several of some. Each lot's entitlement, and what the building has, is on its plan and asset register.

Common questions

What does an apartment built in 2015 in Victoria claim in capital works?

For an 85 m² apartment in a high-rise building, about $171,880 of construction cost at VIC rates ($2,127 per m²), so about $4,297 a year at 2.5% for the 29 years left of its 40. A larger or better-finished apartment costs more: the guide to build quality and storeys sets each tier's cost side by side, state by state.

Why is an apartment's building cost higher than a house's?

Because the building is. A high-rise's concrete structure, basement, lifts, fire systems and shared areas cost more per square metre of saleable floor than a timber-framed house on a slab, and each apartment carries its share. For a building begun after 15 September 1987, the deduction is 2.5% of that cost a year for 40 years from completion.

How is the lift shared?

By unit entitlement. An apartment with 8 of 1,000 entitlements carries 0.8% of the lift's cost, which for one lift is a few hundred dollars: small enough for the low-value pool, so it is deducted faster than its 30-year effective life would suggest.

Is the rate different for apartments in VIC?

The rate is federal: 2.5% a year for residential construction begun after 15 September 1987, everywhere in Australia. What differs is the cost it applies to. Construction in VIC runs about 3% below the national benchmark, and an apartment's structure costs 1.78× a single-storey house's per square metre.

Apartments elsewhere

Other dwellings in VIC

General information only, not advice about your circumstances. Speak to a registered tax agent before relying on it.