South Australia

How is South Australia implementing and monitoring the Livable Housing Australia Standards?

National Construction Code (NCC) Accessible Housing requirements for residential dwellings will become mandatory in South Australia from 1 October 2024.

The South Australian Government has introduced transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Standard which will be reviewed after 18 months. These include blanket exemptions (except for cladding in bathroom and toilet walls) for:

• Blocks with a street frontage of 10m or less; and 
• Blocks under 300sqm not rectangular.

The Building Better Homes Campaign and a collective of South Australian organisations and allies (Purple Orange, SACOSS, Australian Institute of Architects, The Australian Centre for Social Innovation, Council of the Ageing SA, Uniting Communities and Novita) have expressed deep concern that the blanket exemptions will undermine the intentions of the NCC 2022. This is to ensure Australia’s housing stock is adaptable and better able to meet the needs of people with disability with access needs and our older population giving people greater choice of where they live and who they live with. 

We seek for these blanket exemptions to be removed after the 18 month transitional period.

The Building Better Campaign also supports JFA Purple Orange’s 2024/2025 State Budget Submission calling for the South Australian Government to support its implementation through a funded ‘best practice’ campaign to assist the housing industry through this important change.

The Building Better Homes and JFA Purple Orange is also seeking information about how exemptions will be monitored and reported in South Australia.

What to do next?

Email the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Housing Infrastructure and Planning and let him know how happy you are that the government is supporting accessible housing and that you want them to support a strong implementation process without blanket exemptions.