It might be worth approaching lift maintenance companies and asking them if they can keep the lift running for the next five or six years while you raise the funds for a refurb – the contract for which they will be guaranteed.
Just bear in mind that if the lift starts to fail and that affects the access to apartments, your owners corp could be up to pay compensation to owners of tenanted flats (as per this story).
Doing nothing now could turn out to be a false economy in the future.