Building Approvals Bill will mean changes for residential land lease communities

The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 (BAP Bill) was introduced to the Legislative Assembly in early May 2026 by the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong MP. 

The Bill has several parts to it which the NSW government has identified as being necessary for simplifying the design and certification process for the building industry, for improving accountability from the industry and offering better consumer protections for people who purchase a new home.

The Bill will make consequential amendments to other Acts including changes that impact land lease communities.

The Bill will:

• Remove manufactured homes from the definition of "premises" in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
• Manufactured homes will no longer be exempt from the definition of ‘building’ under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Therefore make it possible for manufactured homes to be classed as buildings in the soon to be established BAP Act.
• Remove the definition of Manufactured Home and Manufactured Home Estate from the dictionary within the Local Government Act 1993. 
• Remove manufactured homes from the definition of "Moveable Dwellings" in the Local Government Act 1993 which assists with it being able to be classed as a building under the BAP Act in the near future.
• Other amendments to the Local Government Act 1993 will also omit 'manufactured home' and 'manufactured home estates' from section 124 and section 68 such that they do not need s68 approvals and will no longer be referenced in s124 which empowers councils to issue orders. They will move into more standardised building approvals and completion systems.
• The definition of a "manufactured home" and "manufactured home estate" as they currently exist in the Local Government Act 1993 will be moved into the definitions section of the Residential Land Lease Communities Act under the definition of "home."  We expect this is intended to preserve the existing consumer protections for home owners in land lease communities.

We still have some concerns and some questions about a few of the consequential amendments that will be made and what it will mean for various categories of homes and types of communities covered by the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013.

The Tenants’ Union is monitoring these changes – we will continue to keep you informed about how the changes relate to land lease communities.

At the time of writing the Bill has passed both houses of parliament and is listed as awaiting assent.

More info

• Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026

This article was originally published in Outasite Lite 53.