Customer Success Story: Direct Strata

How Direct Strata Built a Boutique Strata Business That Keeps Scaling on Its Own Terms.

Direct Strata is a Sydney-based strata management firm operating from International Tower One in Barangaroo. Committees get direct mobile access to senior leaders with emails and calls turned around within the same day. The portfolio ranges from six-lot residential buildings to 400-lot complexes across residential, commercial and mixed-use assets in Sydney, so the business handles the same asset complexity as many top-tier firms while operating on a very different scale.

Five years from launching as a startup, Direct Strata Management is now firmly a medium-sized strata business and continues to grow organically. Growth has averaged 20-30% year on year, entirely organic and referral led. Staff retention has been 100% over the last four years. Client retention runs at 99%, with only one departure across the life of the business.

Increasingly, Direct Strata Management is winning larger and more sophisticated buildings, the kind of tenders once reserved for large firms. They compete on responsiveness, technical depth, and a deliberate operating model that protects service quality. The business is also selective about the clients it takes on, turning away work that isn't a cultural fit. Urbanise has been the operating platform underneath the business since 2021 and has continued to develop alongside them as they scale.

Stats at a Glance:

• Growth: 20-30% year on year, entirely organic and referral-led

• Retention: 99% client retention and 100% staff retention over the last four years

• Reporting: Compliance reports that would have taken hours are now generated in a single click

• Tender wins: Increasingly competitive against top-tier firms on larger, more complex buildings

• Category: Now firmly in the medium-sized strata business category, up from startup at launch

  
  

"Urbanise has scaled with us from startup to a medium-sized business, giving us the capability and flexibility to support our growth along the way. It’s been an excellent platform for our business” — Nicholas Johnson, Founder, Direct Strata.

Growth that stays efficient

Direct Strata's competitive edge is a personalised, senior-level service model. Every committee gets direct mobile access to the founders. Because managers aren't overloaded, they can be proactive rather than reactive, and the business gets back the time it would otherwise spend fielding follow-up calls.

That model only works if the platform absorbs the administrative load. Urbanise was chosen for its cloud-based architecture and its ability to scale alongside the business, both decisive factors for a startup. As the portfolio has grown, the platform has grown with it. Levy automation, financial reporting, arrears management, community portal, invoice approvals and legislative reporting are all now part of how the business runs. The features Nicholas and Cindy say they'd miss most are the ones that keep the operation efficient at scale: levy automation, budgets, financial reports and arrears management.

Efficiency matters because it protects the shape of the business. Without automation on the admin and finance side, growth would have meant a heavier back office, rising overheads, and a strata management team stretched thinner than the business is prepared to allow. Urbanise has let Direct Strata avoid that pattern and continue scaling without compromising the service standard.

"Without Urbanise, we'd have needed to hire more admin and finance staff to keep up with the portfolio growth. Levy runs, arrears reminders, financial reporting: the things that would take extra hands to do manually just run in the background. That's what lets us put our people into managing buildings instead of processing paperwork." — Nicholas Johnson, Founder, Direct Strata Management.

Winning bigger, more technical tenders

The buildings Direct Strata competes for keep getting larger, and the committees keep getting more sophisticated. Prospects now include former CFOs, chartered accountants and semi-retired executives who read the reports line by line. The tenders themselves are becoming increasingly technical.

"Our tenders are becoming far more technical. Clients want details on the app, the online portal, security, and reporting. One of the first questions we have now is which platform we're on. Urbanise's ISO 27001 certification and the depth of the technical answers we can give has helped us close deals.”

Nicholas Johnson, Founder, Direct Strata Management

The Community portal and mobile app are central to the pitch. Committees expect 24/7 access to financial reports, invoice approvals, and building documentation. For clients who use the portal actively, it has become a powerful retention tool. Weekly and monthly financial reports produced through Urbanise give sophisticated committees the transparency they now expect.

Keeping pace with changing NSW legislation

NSW strata legislation has changed significantly over the last two years, introducing new requirements around Section 55, delegated functions, and the management of payment plans. Urbanise has kept pace, releasing new functionality to help customers meet these evolving obligations. The Payment Plans Report is one of the latest additions, providing greater visibility and supporting compliance with the new legislative requirements, while the Delegated Functions Report has proven just as valuable in day-to-day operations, turning what could have been hours of manual reporting per building into a click-of-a-button task.

"The platform has kept pace with the legislation as it's changed. Payment plans reports landed when we needed them, and the delegated functions report has become one of the tools we rely on most. Compliance work that could have been a heavy manual burden is instead something the system just handles."

— Nicholas Johnson, Founder, Direct Strata Management

A customer success capability that scales with the business

Urbanise's investment in dedicated account management and customer success has grown alongside customers like Direct Strata Management. As a smaller account when they signed, Direct Strata Management received the same responsiveness and industry-informed support that larger customers receive today, and that relationship has strengthened as the business has grown.

"We've always had a strong response from the Urbanise team. Even though we were a small account when we started, we've never felt like just a number." — Nicholas Johnson, Founder, Direct Strata

Looking ahead

The next phase is more of the same: continued organic growth, selective client onboarding, and a platform that keeps developing alongside the business. Urbanise's ongoing roadmap of automation and AI capability is a big part of why Nicholas is committed to the platform for the long term.

"We're not looking to change. Urbanise has been there from the beginning, and it's the platform we're growing on." — Nicholas Johnson, Founder, Direct Strata Management.

About the Founders

Nicholas Johnson and Cindy Chan founded Direct Strata Management six years ago after more than 15 years working together at one of Australia's larger strata firms. Nicholas holds an LLB, is an SCA Fellow, and was named SCA Young Strata Manager of the Year in 2012. Cindy specialises in client engagement and asset optimisation, and is bilingual in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Between them, they bring more than 40 years of combined strata management experience.

See What Urbanise Strata Can Do for Your Portfolio

Direct Strata's results demonstrate what is possible when a strata business runs on a purpose-built strata management platform. If you manage a strata portfolio in Australia or New Zealand and want to grow without having to add excessive headcount, we'd like to show you how Urbanise Strata works in practice. Request a demo below to speak with our team.

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