LHA Design Guideline Assessment for SDA

The Livable Housing Guidelines which have been developed by industry and the community provide assurance that a dwelling is easier to access, navigate and live in, as well more cost effective to adapt when life’s circumstances change.

Achieving a rating involves an assessment at the design and/or as built stages of your project by a qualified LHA Design Guideline Assessor listed on www.lha.org.au. The assessor is able to attribute that a dwelling has been designed to meet  LHA principles, unless otherwise mandated by the planning or development authority.

LHA Design Guideline Assessors registered with LHA can design or assess a design or an as built dwelling as meeting the Livable Housing Silver, Gold or Platinum levels.  They can assign the use of an LHA Silver, Gold or Platinum logo to a design or an as built dwelling based on their assessment which can then market the property as being livable to future home buyers or for approval by Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) program for additional funding.

On 8 February 2019, the government announced ‘immediate reforms’ to Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) to improve choice and control for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants and boost market confidence. The changes arise from an Australian Government review in 2018 of the SDA Pricing and Payments Framework.