I recently completed as an Access Consultant, the as built certification of a small 2 bedroom villa.
SDA
The Building Certifier insisted on the grounds that the building is proposed to be occupied for use as Specialist Disability Accommodation [SDA] that it must be a Class 3 building for NCC purposes. (Watch this space). I cannot tell you how perverse that is, but I can tell you the impact on the residents.
Any Class 3 building is affected by the Disability Access to Premises Standards 2010 [DAPS]. The DAPS introduces the Disability Code [The Code], which is now entirely encapsulated in the National Construction Code, largely in section D4 of NCC 2022.
For Class 3 buildings, the NCC requires at least 1 bedroom in every ten bedrooms within a Class 3 building to satisfy the access requirements for a person who lives with disabilities and, across the spectrum, this means making the dwelling, including bathrooms and common areas wheelchair accessible. Other relevant inclusions are emergency evacuation alarms, signage, sounders, Fire Indicator Panels, lighting, signage, fire separating construction, smoke doors and so on, and emergency evacuation plan, fire extinguishers, smoke blankets, and so on. Not the kind of installations that you see when you walk around your family home, and probably more hospital like than ever, given the grab rails installed in the bathroom and the accessible signage adjoining the dunny door.
So, this SDA for "improved livability" participants who arent wheelchair users, and who might, for example, live with a vision impairment in a house by any other name, is is a Class 3 rooming house, because you never know when someone who has High Physical Support requirements will move in. There's no way of policing the physical capabilities of a future resident of a boarding house. Best to be safe, right?
SENIOR'S HOUSING
Now, this subject Villa was approved as Seniors housing under the old Senior's State Environmental Planning Policy. The Policy repealed is fully embraced by the current NSW Housing Sepp. It doesn't go unnoticed that the original SEPP is properly titled "Housing for Senior's and People who live with a Disability". So, to my mind, the provisions in that document never intended all Sole Occupancy Units erected by way of it, to be CLASS 3 buildings. Indeed, for many years we have seen class 1a, class 1b, Class 2, Class 3 and Class 9 buildings, perhaps even class 4 buildings, erected under the Senior's SEPP. All of these abodes contain sole occupancy units essentially residential in fact and in spite of the NSW Building Commission.
Yes, bring on 2024 and the NSW Building Commission to work closely with the Federal Government and various State Agencies, and Industry and lets make all houses Class 3. It's only fair, to people who face access challenges, to make things more difficult than they already are.
Some of the Villas in this senior's development are one bed villas. These are Class 1(a) dwellings designed to satisfy the SEPP, but also the Specialist Disability Accommodation Design Standards. They'll be enrolled for SDA without any of the Class 3 features, which is consistent with the Federal Government's enrolment SDA Rules, and completely consistent with the development consent. In my opinion, a person who has High Physical Support needs can reside in a Class 1(a) dwelling. I can't wait to hear the Government explain to all the baby boomers with diminishing motility, that they have to move out of their Class 1(a) castles because the Building classification is no longer suitable for them to occupy.
So, if you intend to invest in the SDA property market, just take a deep breathe, and wait until someone in Macquarie Street decides its sensible for a whole of government approach.