Why Coorparoo is different
Units replaced Queenslanders
From the late 1960s, council let many larger Queenslanders on Kirkland Avenue be demolished for blocks of units. Some of those blocks have since been replaced by newer ones, so the age of your building matters.
Towers too
Coorparoo Square, on the old Myer site, opened in 2017 with three residential towers above commercial floors.
Still plenty of houses
Separate houses were 40.6% of homes and townhouses 9.3%. Spanish Mission homes along Cavendish Road were a popular inter-war style, and Coorparoo's house count jumped from 613 in 1911 to 1,467 a decade later as the trams arrived.
Lots of renters
44.6% of homes were rented, 30.8% mortgaged and 21.5% owned outright. Homes averaged 2.8 bedrooms.
Low-lying pockets
The floods of 1889 and 1893 hit Coorparoo's low-lying areas. In a low-lying ground floor unit, ask about flood height before the outdoor unit goes on a slab.
Getting an air conditioner into a Coorparoo unit
Read the by-laws
Ask the body corporate manager whether there's a by-law on air conditioners, where outdoor units may go and how drain water must be handled.
Apply for approval
Queensland Government guidance says an owner can improve common property only with approval from the committee or the body corporate at a general meeting, and it lists installing air conditioning as an example.
Then get quotes
Give each installer the approval and any conditions, so the quote matches what you're allowed to do. You'll need to follow those conditions and maintain the unit afterwards.
Renting? Ask the owner
An air conditioner counts as a fixture, so you need the owner's written approval. The RTA says they must pass your request on to the body corporate, which isn't bound by the usual 28 days.
Old block or new tower?
In an older unit block, the outdoor unit often goes on a balcony or a rear wall, and the switchboard may have little spare room. Ask the installer to check before quoting. In a newer tower, there may already be a set place for outdoor units and a planned drain, so ask the building manager what's there.
Noise carries in a block. Queensland's default standard limits air conditioner noise at a neighbour's place to 5 dB(A) above background by day and 3 dB(A) above it from 10pm to 7am, unless council has set its own.
What we'd do
If it were our Coorparoo unit
We'd get the body corporate's approval in writing, then choose a quiet inverter split sized for the living area, with the outdoor unit where the by-laws allow and the noise points away from bedrooms. We'd also want an installer who does apartment jobs often and knows how to deal with building managers. With approval sorted, send us the job. Licence-checked installers who take apartment work can view it, and only the one who accepts it gets your contact details. If nobody near Coorparoo takes it within 48 hours, installers elsewhere in Queensland may see it as well.
