Victoria

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

National Construction Code (NCC) Accessible Housing requirements for residential dwellings become mandatory in Victoria from 1 May 2024. These standards are based on the Livable Housing ‘silver’ level design requirements.  The Australian Building Codes Board, who administers the NCC on behalf of the Commonwealth, States and Territories has published comprehensive technical guidance in the Livable Housing Design Standard to support practitioners apply the new requirements. 

The NCC allows for an exemption to step free access to a class 1 dwelling in circumstances where there are significant site constraints such as insufficient space or the gradient of the site is too steep.  A class 1 dwelling is domestic or residential buildings – single, standalone single houses and horizontally attached houses, such as terrace houses, row houses or townhouses). 

In Victoria, where an exemption to step free access is granted for a design, the relevant building surveyor must provide details, including the rationale for the exemption on the building permit.  This information is recorded by Victoria’s building regulator, the Victorian Building Authority. 

The Building Better Homes campaign is seeking information about how exemptions will be monitored and reported in Victoria.