Specialist Disability Accommodation is a house or home that has been designed for people who need support through care and special features added to the home.

The NDIS decides who can live in an SDA home and normally the factors that will be considered are whether the person has extreme impairments that needs to be cared for. examples of this are getting out of bed and moving through the home, cooking meals, showering, ability to leave the home and do the basics like shopping. Basically, you need many hours per day of support by others.

The income can come in a number of forms and is mostly paid by the NDIS to a licenced SDA Property manager who then pays you the investor. You may also be able to collect rent from the participant themselves via a ‘reasonable rent contribution” which is set at 25% of their disability support pension plus any Commonwealth rent assistance.

Houses are built by categories and specifications required for the participant to live in the home. The higher the specifications the higher the income that is paid to support the extra cost in construction. There are additional amounts paid for features which include addition room for overnight onsite carer, fire upgrades facilities which include sprinklers throughout the home.

No, the property manager must be an approved provider by the NDIS and have completed a stringent application process with regular audits over time. there are also a number of additional obligations that the property manager will need to complete to manage the home compared to a traditional investment property.

The short answer is yes however if your builder has not built an SDA home previously then you will need to be very careful as the process is very different in regard to approval, inclusions and most importantly the minimum specifications that are set for each home. get this wrong and your home will not be accepted into the scheme and can cost you then of thousands of dollars in extra work to fix any issues. TIPS SDA use a number of builders who are aware of the requirement involved in building these high specification homes.

Yes, it can cost up to $145,000 more compared to a standard home due to the specifications required and the additional modification involved. This is one of the reasons the rental amounts paid are 3-4 times greater than a standard home which offsets the additional costs quite quickly.

If the participant has long term funding, they can stay indefinitely.

Yes, you may be able to receive payments for your property if it houses 2 or more people and the participants either.

1. Dies
2. Gives notice that he or she will be vacating the dwelling.
3. Is given notice due to bad behaviour that may represent a risk to other residents, staff or to the participant themselves.
4. Vacates the dwelling without giving notice or having been given notice to vacate.
5. The vacancy is available for a participant and the agency has been given notice.

Most participants will stay in your home for the long term unless the house is no longer suitable due to changes in the physical or mental disabilities, family may have relocated to another area, or the home has not been maintained to a high level.