The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026: A new framework for building approvals and oversight of building work in NSW

The NSW Government introduced the Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 (NSW) (Building Approvals Bill) that proposes a fundamental restructuring of the building approvals and certification regime while building on the quality and enforcement regime developed in prior legislation.

For developers, builders, certifiers and manufacturers, the reforms will change how projects move from design through to completion – introducing new approval pathways, compliance requirements and enforcement risks. Early planning will be critical to avoid delays, cost overruns and exposure under the new regime.

A key issue driving the reforms is the complexity of the existing building laws, which are spread over a variety of legislation (and regulations) and were designed primarily to restore confidence amongst consumers in the building industry. This complexity and rising compliance costs have reduced productivity at a time when the industry needs it most. The Building Approvals Bill seeks to balance the need to deliver more housing while maintaining confidence in the sector that buildings will be built properly by trained practitioners.

In summary, the Building Approvals Bill proposes to:

1. remove the construction certificates and occupation certificates requirements from Part 6 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EP&A Act) and replace them with a new building approvals and completion approvals regime that sits alongside the EP&A Act planning consent framework
2. integrate the design and compliance regime established under the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) (DBP Act)
3. centralise regulatory oversight within a more cohesive statutory scheme
4. provide an approval pathway from design through to completion and occupation
5. repeal the following legislation:
   1. The DBP Act
   2. The Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018 (NSW) (BDC Act)
   3. The Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021 (NSW)
   4. Part 6 of the EP&A Act, which will be retitled ‘subdivision certificates and building information certificates’. The building‑related certification and approval processes will be moved into the new legislation, while retaining subdivision certification within the EP&A Act.

The Building Approvals Bill also addresses longstanding gaps and inconsistencies in the regulatory treatment of certain building types and construction methods. In particular, the Bill introduces a comprehensive framework for prefabricated buildings, including the requirement for manufacturer‑provided compliance declarations and installation instructions, and removes the current exclusion of manufactured homes from the definition of ‘building’ under the EP&A Act (that is, manufactured homes would now be regulated under the EP&A Act, together with the Building Approvals Bill and related legislation).

The Building Approvals Bill also expands enforcement mechanisms and introduces new compliance tools, including the ability to issue binding written directions backed by significantly increased penalties, and a formal post‑commencement authorisation process to regularise unauthorised building work. The Bill also enhances the role of the Department of Customer Service, particularly the Secretary, who is given broad powers to oversee practitioners, authorise approvals in certain circumstances and take disciplinary action.

Below is an overview of the key provisions in the Building Approvals Bill.

New approvals regime

One of the most significant reforms is the overhaul of the current certification regime. construction certificates and occupation certificates requirements will be removed from Part 6 of the EP&A Act and replaced with a new building approvals and completion approvals regime that sits alongside the EP&A Act planning consent framework.

The Building Approvals Bill includes the following:

Building approvals

Under the Bill, ‘building work’ involving the erection of a building carried out under a development consent, or as exempt development prescribed by the regulations must be authorised to be carried out by a building approval or complying development certificate. A building approval is not required for building work carried out under a complying development certificate (which is issued under the EP&A Act).

A development consent does not authorise the carrying out of building work. A building approval for building work is taken to form part of the development consent under which the building work is carried out.

An application for a building approval for building work involving a building element for a building prescribed by the regulations must be accompanied by:

1. the relevant design in the approved form (a regulated design)
2. a design compliance declaration made by a holder of a registration under the Bill (a registration holder) that states the design complies with certain requirements (a design compliance declaration) for each design.

An application for a building approval for building work involving a performance solution, as defined in the Building Code of Australia, must be accompanied by a report that meets certain requirements. When applying for building approval for a part of building work being carried out in stages, a separate application for building approval must be made for each stage of the building work.

An approval authority (being the local council, registered person or Planning Minister) must not issue a building approval unless the development consent is in force, the building work is consistent with the development consent, and the conditions of the development consent required before an approval may be issued have been complied with.

A building approval for building work may be varied with the consent of the relevant approval authority appointed for the building work. The approval authority must not issue a building approval that applies to building work that has already commenced, except pursuant to a post-commencement authorisation that:

1. is authorised by the Secretary or person/body prescribed by the regulations
2. may require that conditions and other matters be included in the building approval or the building approval as varied
3. may be given subject to conditions, including a condition requiring rectification work to be carried out before the authorisation has effect.

If a building approval is issued for building work in accordance with the post-commencement authorisation, the building work is taken to be carried out under the building approval. However, this does not prevent a person being prosecuted or other action taken in relation to a breach of the Building Approvals Bill.

Section 10 of the Bill defines ‘building work’ to mean the physical activity involved in the erection of a building (including work prescribed by the regulations).

Completion approvals

Under the Bill, a person having the benefit of a building approval, development consent, or complying development certificate must ensure an application is made for a completion approval for the building work or change of building use related to the relevant approval. An application for a completion approval may be made by the owner of the land, or another person with the consent of the owner.

An application involving a building element for a prescribed building must (except as provided by the regulations) also be accompanied by a building work compliance declaration for the building work made by the principal contractor for the building work.

The completion approval is taken to form part of the development consent or complying development certificate under which the work is carried out.

Prefabricated buildings

The Bill is the first of its kind in Australia that regulates prefabricated buildings. We note the Tasmanian government’s recent announcement on 4 June 2026 that it will introduce legislation to guarantee targeted loans for the financing of off-site modular construction. The purpose of the scheme will be to encourage more investment into pre-fabricated homes, where limited collateral has historically restricted lending.

Different to traditional buildings that are built on site from start to finish, a prefabricated building is manufactured wholly or partly off-site, then transported to the designated site to be assembled on site. The efficiencies of production in a controlled off-site environment have led to faster building times at a fraction of the costs of traditional construction methods. It is little wonder that the Government is focusing attention on these ‘modern methods of construction’ to help improve productivity and get more homes built.

However when a module or building arrives on site pre-designed and pre-constructed, there are risks that any defects in the design and construction process will not be discovered until after the building is complete and only then after destructive testing is undertaken. These defects may have a flow-on effect to other building elements or components.

The Bill seeks to overcome these risks by introducing a requirement for the making of a Prefabricated Building Declaration and Prefabricated Building Instructions by the manufacturer as documentation to confirm and support compliance with the Building Code of Australia or other additional prescribed requirements.

Several practical issues remain for the regulations to resolve, including:

• specifying the stages at which inspections are required (termed ‘mandatory inspections’)
• how will the regulations ensure that mandatory inspections are carried out
• what must happen if a mandatory inspection is not carried out
• prohibiting further work if an approval authority is not satisfied following a mandatory inspection
• authorising persons who may carry out inspections for an approval authority
• how will the duty of care apply to prefabricated buildings which are owned by one party but located on land owned by another party
• how will the duty of care apply to manufacturers of prefabricated buildings outside of New South Wales or Australia
• how will pre-fabricated homes be dealt with under the Home Building Act.

Complying development certificates

The Bill provides requirements that must be met to issue a complying development certificate for complying development involving building work. An approval authority must not issue a complying development certificate for complying development involving ‘building work’ unless satisfied that:

1. the building work will comply with the Building Code of Australia as in force on the day the application for the complying development certificate was made
2. for building work involving a building element for a prescribed building or a performance solution — the application for the certificate is accompanied by the documents required to accompany an application under section 18 or 19 of the Building Approvals Bill, respectively.

Land and Environment Court

Under the Bill, an applicant for a building approval or completion approval may appeal to the Land and Environment Court against a local council’s decision to refuse to issue the approval.

A person may also apply to the Land and Environment Court to remedy or restrain a contravention of the proposed Act or regulations relating to a building approval or completion approval.

Changes to the EP&A Act

The Building Approvals Bill makes the following amendments to the EP&A Act:

Effect of issuing building approval

A building approval is taken to form part of the development consent to which the building approval relates, and includes the plans and specifications issued with the building approval, and variations to the building approval, including the plans and specifications, made in accordance with the Bill.

Consent for erection of building authorises use of building

A development consent that authorises the erection of a building also authorises the use of the building for a purpose once erected if either:

1. the use of the building for the purpose is authorised by the development consent
2. the development consent does not prohibit the use of the building for the purpose and the purpose was specified in the application for development consent.

This does not authorise the occupation of a building if a completion approval is required under the Bill.

Exempt development

The carrying out of exempt development does not require a building approval or completion approval under the Bill, except as otherwise provided by that Act. Importantly, section 15(1)(b) of the Bill requires that building work carried out as exempt development and prescribed by the regulations, involving the erection of a building must be authorised by a building approval or complying development certificate.

Carrying out of complying development

If complying development relates to building work for which standards are specified under the Bill, the complying development certificate must set out the standards of building work that apply to the development.

Part 6 Subdivision certificates and building information certificates

Part 6 of the EP&A Act:

1. will be retitled from ‘building and subdivision certification’ to ‘subdivision certificates and building information certificates’, with the building‑related certification and approval processes moved into the Building Approvals Bill, while retaining subdivision certification within the EP&A Act
2. certificates will include subdivision works certificates, subdivision certificates and compliance certificates (regarding subdivision works). Construction certificates and occupation certificates will be deleted.

Building information certificates

Building information certificates will be expanded to cover the EP&A Act, the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) and the Building Approvals Bill.

Development control orders

The power to issue development control orders will be expanded when a building is being used inconsistently with its classification under the EP&A Act, the Building Approvals Bill or the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW).

Manufactured homes

The Bill introduces a substantial and long‑anticipated reform to the regulatory treatment of ‘manufactured homes’, fundamentally altering how they are approved.

Manufactured homes have been regulated primarily under the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW), including through a section 68 approval for the activity of ‘install a manufactured home’; and satisfying the requirements under the Local Government (Manufactured Home Estates, Caravan Parks, Camping Ground and Moveable Dwellings) Regulation 2021 (NSW). This is because the definition of ‘development’ under the EP&A Act (which includes the erection of a building) currently excludes a manufactured home.

The Bill seeks to:

1. amend the EP&A Act by deleting the exclusion of manufactured home from the definition of building
2. delete the definitions of manufactured home and ‘manufactured home estate’ and the requirement to obtain a section 68 approval for the activity of install a manufactured home from the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW)
3. amend other legislation including the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW).

Under the Bill, manufactured homes will require development consent under the EP&A Act falling within the definition of ‘development’ under the EP&A Act (which includes the erection of a building). A building approval and completion approval will also be required. The above requirements for prefabricated buildings also apply to manufactured homes.

The statutory duty of care remains unapportionable

Since the High Court’s 4:3 split decision in Pafburn, which determined that claims for breach of the statutory duty of care under the DBP Act do not attract the proportionate liability provisions under the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW), much debate has ensued with regard to who should be responsible for the building work undertaken (or controlled) by them.

Critics of Pafburn believe that head contractors should not take the sole responsibility for defects in design or construction that may have been caused by a specialist subcontractor or designer over which they have little practical influence, input or control.

Proponents of Pafburn believe that the decision reflects the intent of the legislation which has always been consumer-focused and designed to restore public confidence in the building sector. It should not be a home-owner’s responsibility to identify concurrent wrongdoers where factual issues of causation may be technically complex.

It was interesting to observe the former Minister, Kevin Anderson’s (who was responsible for the introducing the DBP Act into New South Wales) remarks during the second reading debate as the Bill passed through the lower house.

Minister Anderson said:

“The whole point of the ‘no delegation’ and ‘no contracting out’ provisions was to stop parties using contracts to wash their hands of liability to the owners corporation, which was happening all the time back then. It was never meant to mean that the parties actually responsible could not be joined into proceedings and liability apportioned between them. They are two completely different concepts; somehow they have been rolled into one. I never in a million years thought the High Court would interpret the Act as getting rid of proportionate liability, especially with section 41 (3) in black and white in the Act”.

The Government rejected proposed amendments to the Bill that would see proportionate liability established for statutory breach of duty of care cases citing that such significant changes would require much greater consultation to effectively reverse a very significant and recent High Court decision. While not ruling out potential further reform on this issue, the Government was not prepared to make any changes for now.

Compliance and enforcement

A significant change in the Building Approvals Bill is the regulation of certifiers. While the Bill falls short in clarifying whether certifiers are actually subject to the duty of care provisions in Part 8 (that is whether they actually perform ‘construction work’), the Bill does seek to give certifiers (now called approval authorities) greater flexibility to approve minor variations during construction without the need to go back to a local council. This has the potential to save up to six months in approval time frames for local councils and free up resources to be used elsewhere.

With the additional powers and responsibilities for certifiers comes increased penalties for non-compliance with the earlier fines of $30,000 proposed to increase to $1.1million (10,000 penalty units). The conflict of interest provisions are set out in Division 3 of the Bill, which will make it an offence for an individual to carry out relevant approvals work if the individual has a ‘conflict of interest’ in the relevant approvals work.

Conflict of interest is specifically defined for 8 scenarios which, if any exists, will mean that a conflict of interest arises.

Dispute resolution

Of no less importance is the Government’s focus on dispute resolution. If not managed carefully, the costs of resolving disputes in the construction industry can escalate quickly and often exceed the costs of rectification in the first place.

The Building Approvals Bill introduces several dispute resolution mechanisms across different contexts – appeals against approval decisions, administrative review of registration decisions, court proceedings, undertakings, and a new regulation-enabled dispute resolution scheme for building work disputes.

This last category will be particularly important for the end consumers of units or townhouses in strata schemes and those who supply them.

Section 68(2A) of the Bill empowers the regulations to establish a dispute resolution scheme administered by the Secretary for disputes involving building work and related work.

That is where the detail ends, and will need to be picked up by the regulations which may provide for:

• specifying the disputes to which the scheme applies
• enabling or requiring the scheme to be used before disputes go before a court or tribunal and extending limitation times to account for the diversion
• providing how a dispute enters the scheme, whether by application to the Secretary or otherwise
• establishing a dispute resolution process
• giving the Secretary powers for resolving disputes and enforcing compliance
• providing when a dispute must no longer be dealt with under the scheme
• funding the scheme, including by charging fees to participants
• providing whether the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW), Part 3A, Division 2 applies to disputes handled under the scheme
• enabling the Secretary to investigate and prepare reports about disputes (including those to which the scheme does not apply)
• requiring courts or tribunals to admit the Secretary’s reports as evidence in related proceedings.

The scheme, if sufficiently detailed and prescriptive, can provide critical opportunities for dispute resolution prior to parties entrenching themselves in court warfare.

All too often, strata participants in the dispute process, have been subjected to court-based litigation as a first step toward negotiating an outcome.[1] Once legal costs reach a certain point, clarity around the issues can become obscured as parties end up focusing on legal cost recovery rather than resolving the defects.

Key takeaways

The Building Approvals Bill represents a major overhaul of the NSW building approvals and certification regime while continuing to address building quality in newer methods of construction, including prefabricated buildings and the manufactured home sector which has grown with increasing land-lease communities.

If passed into legislation, the new Act will create a standalone building approvals framework. It will remove the construction certificates and occupation certificates requirements from Part 6 of the EP&A Act and replace it with a new building approvals and completion approvals regime that sits alongside the EP&A Act planning consent framework.

The regulation of prefabricated buildings – the first time this ‘modern method of construction’ has been directly regulated in Australia, demonstrates that NSW is recognising the importance of modular construction to productivity in the industry, a key factor in tackling the housing crisis by being able to deliver homes and buildings more efficiently and at less cost.

The other aspect of the Bill is the need to maintain safeguards around the quality of design and construction building on what has been developed recently in the DBP Act and the RAB Act. The new enforcement rules relating to certifiers has great potential to deter the few ‘bad apples’ as are the new conflict of interest provisions which seek to impart greater clarity around when a conflict or potential conflict will arise and the ramifications for those who disregard them. The new dispute resolution scheme for strata properties will be closely monitored and debated. There is much potential for the scheme to provide a more efficient pathway for disputes to be resolved before they enter the courts or tribunal. Effectively managing strata scheme building defect disputes will assist in restoring confidence to the sector and should help mitigate the risks of contractor insolvencies.

Striking the right balance between the two (at times conflicting) purposes of the Bill is no easy task, and this is, perhaps, one reason why so much of the detail of the proposed new laws is left to the regulations which have yet to be finalised or released for industry consultation. Until this time, some uncertainty remains as to how the new laws will work in practice. Nevertheless, the Building Approvals Bill appears to be a step in the right direction for NSW’s continued reform to the sector.

In the meantime, developers, builders, certifiers and manufacturers should consider:

• reviewing current project approval and certification processes
• assessing how staged works and design documentation will be managed under the new regime
• identifying exposure to expanded compliance and enforcement powers
• monitoring the release of draft regulations, particularly for prefabricated buildings and dispute resolution.

Early engagement will be key to managing transition risk and avoiding delays once the new framework is implemented.

For further information about the Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 (NSW), please contact our team.

Authored by:

Matthew Taylor, Partner
Patrick Holland, Partner
Ben Swain, Special Counsel
Charlene Cai, Associate
Eva Zofrea, Graduate

[1] Particularly when an owner faces a limitation date and must commence proceedings quickly to avoid being barred from proceeding.