Strata & Residential Complex Cleaning

Overview

Realcorp Commercial Cleaning provides strata and residential complex cleaning across Melbourne, working directly with Owners Corporations, Owners Corporation Managers, Strata Committees and Facility Managers. The service covers the shared property of an apartment building or townhouse development — the areas no single lot owner controls but every resident judges the building by. Realcorp describes the scope as "enhancing presentation and hygiene across your property, inside and out", and delivers it as a combination of routine, checklist-driven attendance and specialist support for high-traffic or sensitive areas.

The company states it has experience servicing over 50 residential complexes within its portfolio, ranging from 20 to 600 apartments. That range matters when assessing fit: a 20-lot boutique block and a 600-apartment tower with a pool, gym and rooftop amenity are different operational problems — the first needs a reliable short attendance and a contactable supervisor, the second needs rostered daily coverage, bin room logistics at volume, and a reporting trail a committee can read. Realcorp's published strata client sample spans both ends. It names Parque Apartments (two towers, 332 apartments, St Kilda Road), Green Square (406 apartments plus 93 serviced apartments, with pool, gym, library, rooftop BBQ and gardens), The Eastbourne (258 luxury apartments with gym, pool, lounges, bar and cinema), Folia Apartments (102 apartments in Mirvac's Tullamore precinct), Jewel Apartments (65 apartments over seven levels, South Melbourne), Mosspennoch Clarendon in East Melbourne, AYA Apartments in Moonee Ponds, Wardens Walk in the Pentridge Village community at Coburg, and a boutique complex at Lindsay Street, Brighton.

Several of those engagements are listed as caretaker positions rather than cleaning-only contracts — Lindsay Street, Jewel, Mosspennoch Clarendon and AYA are all marked "RESIDENTIAL, CARETAKER POSITION". This is a meaningful distinction for a committee comparing proposals: Realcorp offers caretaker and building support as an available scope, not only scheduled cleaning attendance. Realcorp's marketing states it offers strata and owners corporation cleaning across Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide; the client examples published on the strata page are Melbourne buildings.

What's included

The common areas Realcorp lists for strata and residential complex work:

• Lobbies, corridors and lifts — the presentation-critical circulation spaces, including lift interiors and tracks
• Bin rooms and waste management — including support for on-site recycling and waste minimisation
• Car parks and driveways
• Windows, glass and mirrors
• Letterboxes, foyers and shared amenities

Beyond the routine scope, Realcorp runs a separate mobile Specialist Cleaning Team with commercial-grade machinery. For residential buildings this covers the periodic and restorative work that a daily cleaner cannot do: carpet and upholstery cleaning by cold water extraction for common area carpets and lounges; pressure washing of driveways, courtyards, car parks, bin rooms, walls and exterior facades; hard floor maintenance including tile and grout deep cleaning, strip-seal-and-polish for vinyl, timber or stone, and high-speed burnishing for foyers and high-traffic corridors; and hard waste removal for bulky items, unwanted furniture and discarded appliances, with skip bin coordination and council-compliant disposal. Realcorp notes hard waste removal is scheduled flexibly to minimise disruption to residents, and suits resident move-ins and move-outs as well as site refurbishments.

Related services a building can add to the same contract rather than tender separately include bathroom and washroom hygiene servicing for shared amenities (sanitary bins, air freshener units, urinal servicing), wheelie bin cleaning through Realcorp's partnership with The Bin Butlers covering 120L, 240L, 660L and 1100L general, recycling, green and FOGO bins, and 24/7 emergency response for floods, spills and post-incident cleaning. Realcorp notes there is a potential cost saving on bathroom hygiene where it is already the site's cleaning contractor, because there is no separate call-out.

Who this is for

• Owners Corporation Managers running cleaning contracts across a portfolio of buildings and needing consistent reporting they can pass to each committee
• Strata Committees and committee chairs who are volunteers, meet periodically, and need evidence that scope is being delivered between meetings
• Facility Managers and on-site Building Managers at larger towers, who carry day-to-day escalation
• Developers and building managers of amenity-heavy towers — pools, gyms, resident lounges, rooftop gardens, cinema and dining rooms, which need presentation standards closer to hospitality than to an office
• Boutique complexes at the smaller end of the range where a caretaker-style arrangement may suit better than a fixed cleaning-only scope

How Realcorp delivers it

Four elements define the delivery model.

Directly employed cleaners. Realcorp employs all its cleaners directly and states it never subcontracts ongoing general cleaning work. For a committee, this addresses the accountability gap that is common in strata cleaning: the person attending the building is Realcorp's employee, trained and supervised by Realcorp, rather than a subcontractor at arm's length from the contract signed.

Reliable routines with scope checklists. The scope is documented as a checklist for the site rather than left as a general standard of care, which makes "what are we actually paying for" answerable at a committee meeting.

The Realcorp App. Realcorp's cloud-based app handles GPS-tracked time and attendance, digital checklist completion in real time, live issue reporting, and photo verification of key tasks. For strata this is the mechanism that replaces chasing: a committee or manager can see that attendance happened and that nominated tasks were completed, and Realcorp states full audit history is available on request. The company also states statistics reports are reviewed by its leadership team weekly.

Specialist and caretaker support. The Specialist Team is a dedicated mobile unit separate from the daily cleaners, available scheduled or one-off. Caretaker and building support is available as an additional scope, as reflected in several of Realcorp's named strata engagements.

Compliance and assurance

The following are Realcorp's own stated positions. A committee should request the compliance pack and verify currency before appointment.

• All cleaners directly employed, with Realcorp stating full compliance with the Cleaning Services Award, superannuation, payroll tax, insurance and portable long service leave, and no exposure to sham contracting or modern slavery risk through subcontracting
• Licensed under the Labour Hire Licensing Authority, as required in several Australian states (company-stated)
• Public liability and workers compensation insurance, with professional indemnity where required (company-stated)
• Site-specific Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS), ongoing safety training, incident tracking and defined escalation protocols for service and safety issues
• Police checks and Working With Children Checks where required, plus site-specific inductions, monitored through the rostering system
• Environmental systems following ISO 14001 principles, eco-conscious and GECA-compliant chemicals where possible, and support for client-led recycling initiatives
• Audits and KPIs tailored to each site and its risk profile
• Realcorp states a full compliance pack is provided on proposal acceptance, or earlier by request

The company was founded in 2016 by John Reale, a Chartered Accountant, and is 100% Australian owned.

Common questions

How large a building can Realcorp handle?

Realcorp states its residential portfolio ranges from 20 to 600 apartments across more than 50 complexes. Its published examples include a 406-apartment complex with 93 serviced apartments and a 332-apartment two-tower development, so the upper end of that range is represented by named sites.

Does Realcorp clean inside apartments, or only common property?

The strata scope published by Realcorp is common property — lobbies, corridors, lifts, bin rooms, car parks, glass, letterboxes, foyers and shared amenities. In-unit housekeeping is offered as a resident service under Realcorp's build-to-rent scope, and full room cleaning is part of its student accommodation service, so the capability exists; for a strata building it would need to be specified and quoted separately.

Can Realcorp take on a caretaker role as well as cleaning?

Yes. Realcorp lists caretaker and building support as available, and several of its named residential engagements are described as caretaker positions.

Who does the committee deal with day to day?

Realcorp's stated model is clear handovers and defined escalation paths, with supervisor and manager audits over the site team, and live issue reporting through the app. A client testimonial published by Realcorp from the chairman of a Wardens Walk building references walking the site together to review the work.

What happens if the previous contractor leaves at short notice?

Realcorp states it has managed emergency deployments for new engagements where previous contractors walked off-site with no notice, and gives a typical mobilisation lead time of one to two weeks, with faster set-ups achieved.

Are periodic works quoted inside the monthly fee or separately?

Realcorp presents specialist works — carpet extraction, pressure washing, floor strip and seal, hard waste — as a distinct Specialist Team service available on a scheduled or one-off basis. Whether the annual program is bundled into the contract sum or invoiced per job is a matter for the proposal; a committee should ask for periodic works to be priced explicitly so the annual budget is complete.

Does Realcorp handle bins and waste, or only bin rooms?

Both, to a point. Bin rooms and waste management are in the routine strata scope, and Realcorp supports on-site recycling and waste minimisation. Physical wheelie bin washing and sanitising is a separate service delivered in partnership with The Bin Butlers, available on subscription or as a one-off, within 20km of Melbourne.

Which cities does Realcorp service for strata?

Realcorp's strata page states it offers strata and owners corporation cleaning across Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. The strata client examples it publishes are Melbourne buildings. For a site outside Melbourne, confirm local delivery capability directly before appointment.

Getting a quote

Realcorp's process is a tailored proposal rather than published pricing. The steps are: make an enquiry describing the building — number of lots, levels, amenities, current frequency and any caretaking requirement; arrange a site walk-through so scope is set against the actual common property rather than a floor plan; then receive a written proposal with a documented scope checklist and frequency. Realcorp states it responds to proposal requests within 24 hours and can provide its compliance pack on request, which is worth obtaining before a committee vote.

Contact: 1300 307 298 · sales@realcorp.net.au. Realcorp Commercial Cleaning, 4 Graeme Ave, Montmorency VIC 3094. The company's proposal form includes a dedicated Strata Cleaning Proposal path.