NDIA Accountability Project

This project is in DRAFT

Requesting home and living supports

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Requesting home and living supports

On this page:

  • What does the NDIS fund?
  • Requesting home and living supports
  • How to submit your forms and information

We continue to improve how we support participants with accessing housing supports in a timely and consistent way.

We may fund reasonable and necessary home and living supports, if they are unable to be met through mainstream, community, informal or other supports.

What does the NDIS fund?

It is important to note, we do not own or operate any housing but may provide funding, if appropriate for:

  • Capacity building to assist participants to live independently in the community, supports to improve living skills, money and household management, social and communication skills and behavioural management.
  • Capacity building support to assist participants with developing skills for independence.
  • Home modifications to the participant’s own home or a private rental property and on a case-by-case basis in social housing.
  • Assistive technology to enable a participant to remain independent.
  • Support and assistance to complete day-to-day tasks or personal care, such as assistance with showering and dressing.
  • Help around the home where the participant is unable to undertake these tasks due to their disability, such as assistance with cleaning and laundry.

We may also contribute to the cost of accommodation in situations where the participant has a need for specialised accommodation due to their disability.

More information is available in the home and living supports would we fund it guide.

Requesting home and living supports

We want to provide the best option for support in your home, now and in the longer term. We can help explain the different home and living supports.

Requesting home and living supports

We’ll work with you to find the best mix of supports that will help you live as independently as possible.

If you have a goal about home and living in your plan, we may be able to fund home and living supports.

When you ask for home and living supports, we will talk to you about exploring:

  • all your home and living options. This includes options through state or territory government agencies, your local community services or the private market.
  • other supports that would help you live independently. This could include informal supports from your family, friends and other people in your community.

We can support you to explore these options. Part of this discussion will include obtaining information about your current and future needs.

Talk to your local area coordinator, support coordinator or recovery coach for more information and support.

What information you need to give us

If you need to change your plan because you need home and living supports, you will need to let us know about your change of details or situation.

You can do this by:

  • completing our change of details or situation form
  • calling us on 1800 800 110
  • send an enquiry through the contact page
  • visiting the office location page on the NDIS website.

If you want us to review a decision we have made about your home and living support, you will need to ask us for an internal review.

You can do this by:

  • completing our request for a review of a decision form
  • calling us on 1800 800 110
  • send an enquiry through the contact page
  • visiting the office location page on the NDIS website.

You need to ask us to change your plan or review a decision if you want us to consider home and living supports.

Requesting home and living supports

28/01/2026, 09:17

You can talk to your local area coordinator, support coordinator or recovery coach for more information and support.

What evidence you need to give us

We need evidence from your allied health professionals to include home and living supports in your plan. Good evidence is recent and from a relevant treating professional.

If you need home and living supports for the first time, your evidence needs to explain:

  • Your daily support and housing needs, including how often and when you need the support each day.
  • Your functional capacity and the impact on your daily life and housing needs. When we say functional capacity, we mean the things you can and can’t do because of your disability.
  • What other home and living options you’ve explored and why they don’t meet your disability-related support needs.

If you need to change the home and living supports you already have, your evidence needs to be dated since your last NDIS plan was approved and explain:

  • The significant changes to your daily support and housing needs, including any new things you can and can’t do for yourself.
  • The changes to your functional capacity and the impact on your daily life and housing needs.

Learn more in our factsheet – What evidence you need to give us before we create your plan. We can’t include home and living supports in your plan without the correct evidence.

How to submit your forms and information

Once completed, you can return your forms and supporting information in one of 3 ways:

  • Send an enquiry through the contact page.
  • Via mail to: NDIA, GPO Box 700, Canberra ACT 2601.
  • In person at your local NDIS or partner office.

If you are submitting this before your scheduled plan reassessment, please do so within 100 days of that assessment. This will help ensure we have all the information we need early and reduce the need to request additional information.

Requesting home and living supports

These forms should be supported with all relevant information, including any assessments or letters from health professionals.

If you have already submitted your previous home and living supports form, you do not need to do anything else. We will still process and consider this request.

This page current as of 21 October 2025

SDA Design Standard

Review of the SDA Design Standard

The NDIA has engaged KPMG Australia to conduct a review of the Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Design Standard. It’s essential that the design requirements of dwellings intended for SDA keep pace with industry codes and standards, and support the continued delivery of safe, high quality dwellings that meet the needs of eligible NDIS participants. The review of the SDA Design Standard is one of the ways the NDIA is making sure this happens.

Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference define the purpose and scope of the SDA Design Standard Review.

Consultation

The consultation and engagement phase for the review of the SDA Design Standard has now ended. Thank you to all who contributed. We heard from:

  • participants, families and carers
  • the disability sector and community
  • people who design, build and invest in SDA

SDA Design Standard

Next steps

The valuable feedback and evidence we received is now being collated and reviewed.

This feedback will inform the development of the next edition of the SDA Design Standard and implementation plan in 2026.

The key themes and findings from the consultation will also be reported on the NDIS Engage website in the coming months.

Updates on the SDA Design Standard will continue to be available on this page.

Questions

If you have any questions about the review, please email the KPMG team.

SDA Design Standard

The Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Design Standard outlines the detailed design requirements for prospective SDA dwellings.

The SDA Design Standard has 4 design categories as set out in the SDA Rules (2020):

  • improved liveability
  • robust
  • fully accessible
  • high physical support.

The SDA Design Standard improves clarity about design requirements, provider confidence and compliance by giving:

  • participants access to high-quality housing
  • providers flexibility to respond to participant needs and preferences
  • architects, builders and the community information about how housing for people with disability should be built.

The SDA Design Standard was published in October 2019 and applies to all new and new build refurbished SDA from 1 July 2021.

SDA Design Standard certification

SDA Design Standard

All dwelling enrolment applications for newly built SDA must include SDA Design Standard certification. This must be signed by an accredited third-party SDA assessor who is not an employee, associate or otherwise contracted by the provider, developer or owner.

SDA assessors are engaged by the SDA developer, owner or provider to certify compliance of the dwelling with the SDA Design Standard. The NDIA does not engage SDA assessors to certify dwellings.

An accredited SDA assessor is the only person who can issue SDA Design Standard certification. There are 2 stages of SDA Design Standard certification. Dwellings are certified at the design stage before construction commences. Design stage certification by an accredited SDA assessor gives more certainty to providers that what they build will meet the minimum design requirements in the SDA Design Standard for the nominated design category (or categories). Dwellings are then certified by an accredited SDA assessor at final as built stage. SDA Design Standard certification doesn’t mean that the dwelling will be enrolled as SDA. The NDIA decides whether to enrol a dwelling when a SDA provider submits a completed application to enrol, after the dwelling is built. The NDIA won’t enrol a dwelling if the provider and the dwelling don’t meet all of the requirements for enrolment under the SDA Rules at the time of the decision. This is regardless of the Design Standard certification by the accredited SDA assessor, or previous assessment, feedback or certification provided by the NDIA or any other party. SDA helps to stimulate the market to produce high quality, contemporary, accessible, well-designed housing for participants who need SDA. It’s the responsibility of the SDA provider to make sure the dwelling they submit for enrolment is suitable for specialist disability accommodation and fully and clearly compliant with all requirements of the relevant building type and design category. The SDA Design Standard does not apply to dwellings seeking enrolment as existing or legacy stock SDA. For information on requirements for existing or legacy stock SDA, go to enrolling a dwelling.

SDA design stage register

SDA Design Standard

The accredited SDA assessor is required to lodge their certification with the NDIA. The certification includes their assessment of compliance against the SDA Design Standard. It also includes a proposed building type for the dwelling.

The types are:

  • apartment
  • villa/duplex/townhouse
  • house
  • group home.

The features of each building type are set out in the SDA Rules. Where there is any uncertainty as to whether the features are present, the NDIA encourages a conservative interpretation of the requirements. For certification at the design stage, the NDIA records the details of the project on a design stage register. Data from the design stage register is included in data releases to inform the market of the pipeline of work under development, noting that commercial in confidence or identifying information is protected. Adding a dwelling to the design stage register doesn’t mean the dwelling will be enrolled as SDA, or that it will be enrolled as the same building type and design category as what is on the register.

SDA assessors

The Find an Accredited SDA Assessor page provides access to all accredited assessors.

Becoming an SDA assessor

Access Institute delivers the only NDIA approved training course to allow qualified assessors to gain accreditation to assess plans and dwellings for compliance with the SDA Design Standard. Anyone can do the course, however only specified professionals (architects, accesses consultants, occupational therapists and building surveyor) who meet certain requirements can become accredited SDA assessors.

SDA Design Standard

  • must hold current registration in a practicing category with the relevant Architects’ Board in their state or territory.
  • must provide evidence that they have completed the CPP40811 Certificate IV in Access Consulting or CPP50711 Diploma of Access Consulting nationally recognised qualification.

Access consultants

  • must be accredited members of the Association of Consultants in Access Australia (ACAA).
  • must be qualified in Access Consulting and provide evidence of completion of CPP40811 Certificate IV in Access Consulting or CPP50711 Diploma of Access Consulting nationally recognised qualification.

Occupational therapists

  • must hold current registration in the general registration category with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
  • must provide evidence of completion of CPP40811 Certificate IV in Access Consulting or CPP50711 Diploma of Access Consulting nationally recognised qualification.

Building surveyors or building certifiers

  • Must hold current accreditation in their state or territory under the National Accreditation Framework, as building surveyor (level 1) or building surveyor limited (level 2).
  • Must provide evidence of completion of CPP40811 Certificate IV in Access Consulting or CPP50711 Diploma of Access Consulting nationally recognised qualification.

Additional requirements for building surveyors in areas not operating under the National Accreditation Framework

There are additional requirements to become an SDA assessor if you are a building surveyor operating in the following states and territories:

SDA Design Standard

New South Wales

Building certifiers must have level A accreditation (grade 1 or 2) with the Building Professionals Board.

Victoria

Building certifiers must be registered with the Victorian Building Authority as a building surveyor unlimited or building surveyor limited.

Queensland

Building certifiers must be registered with Queensland Building and Construction Commission as a building certifier (level 1 or level 2) individual building.

Western Australia

Building certifiers must be registered with the Building Commission or Building Professionals Board as a building surveying practitioner level 1 or 2, or be registered as a building surveyor practitioner: technician.

Tasmania

Building certifiers must be registered with Workplace Standards as a building surveyor, a building surveyor limited, or an assistant building surveyor.

Australian Capital Territory

Building certifiers must be registered with Access Canberra as a principal building surveyor or principal building surveyor employee class; or general building surveyor or general building surveyor

SDA Design Standard

employee class.

Building surveyors in areas not operating under the National Accreditation

Must hold professional qualifications that would permit registration in any of the above jurisdictions.

When potential SDA assessors successfully complete the required training, they need to provide the following information to the NDIA to become an SDA assessor and be added to the SDA assessor list:

  • completed SDA assessor registration form
  • signed SDA Code of Conduct form
  • evidence of relevant prerequisites for the approved professions as detailed above
  • evidence of Certificate IV or Diploma of Access Consulting completion
  • copy of Certificate of Currency for Professional Indemnity Insurance ($5,000,000)
  • copy of Certificate of Currency for Public Liability Insurance ($10,000,000)
  • other relevant documentation as required or requested by the NDIA from time to time.

Conflict of interest

SDA assessors can’t certify any project where there may be a perceived or actual conflict of interest. For the purposes of the SDA Design Standard, the NDIA uses the conflict of interest definition in the National Model Code of Conduct for Building Surveyors published by the Australian Building Codes Board in 2020.

For example, SDA assessors can’t certify projects:

  • designed by them in their capacity as an architect or building designer
  • constructed by them in their capacity as the builder
  • assessed by them in their capacity as a building surveyor or building certifier
  • where their private interest or those of their immediate friends and family mean they can’t carry out their own work impartially and without bias.

Using the SDA Design Standard

The NDIA doesn’t provide specific technical advice. SDA assessors should interpret the Design Standard to the best of their professional ability.

SDA Design Standard

If the Design Standard can be interpreted in different ways, SDA assessors should interpret the information that will lead to the best outcome for the participant and confirm this in writing with the NDIA.

For questions about the SDA Design Standard, email SDAHousing@ndis.gov.au.

This page current as of 23 December 2025

https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/housing-and-living-supports-and-services/specialist-disability-accommodation/sda-design-standardPage 63 of 64 Page 8

SDA pricing and payments

On this page:

  • SDA Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26

Some NDIS participants receive funding for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).

SDA has accessible features to help residents live more independently and have better access to the supports in their home.

NDIS provides funding through a participant’s plan and the participant, often with additional support such as a support coordinator, then finds and applies for the SDA option that best suits their needs.

SDA funding in participant plans is used for housing, not services or supports.

SDA Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26

The NDIS Pricing Arrangements for Specialist Disability Accommodation (previously the Price Guide for Specialist Disability Accommodation) is a summary of price limits and other pricing arrangements that apply to SDA under the NDIS.

The SDA price calculator can help providers calculate the expected annual income of an SDA dwelling.

Learn about recent changes to pricing arrangements and price limits on the Pricing updates page.

Along with the NDIS Pricing Arrangements for SDA, there are 2 other key sources of information on SDA, including:

Previous SDA arrangements and calculators can be found on the Pricing arrangements archive page.

This page current as of 14 October 2025