What the Livable Housing Design Standard Means for Your New Gold Coast Home in 2026

If you’re planning a new home on the Gold Coast, there’s a set of rules that now shapes your floor plan whether you’ve heard of them or not — the Livable Housing Design Standard. It applies to new homes in Queensland, and for most new homes it needs to be dealt with properly — yet most people don’t discover it until a designer raises it. The good news: handled properly, it makes a home more comfortable and more future-proof, not more clinical.

As both a licensed builder and a licensed building designer, I design to these requirements as a matter of course. Here’s what they actually are, and what they mean for your project.

What is the Livable Housing Design Standard?

It’s part of the National Construction Code (NCC) 2022, adopted in Queensland under the Modern Homes standards and in force for new homes since 1 October 2023. For the kind of detached houses, townhouses, terraces and villa-style homes most Gold Coast clients are planning, it applies through the new Class 1a home requirements.

The idea is simple: build a few basic, livable features in from the start so a home is easier to move around and cheaper to adapt later, rather than facing an expensive retrofit when circumstances change. It sits alongside the energy side of the Modern Homes standards — if you want the energy picture, our guide to the NCC 2022 7-star energy rating covers that half.

What’s actually required

The standard comes down to a handful of practical things that shape your plan:

• Step-free entry — at least one entrance with a step-free path to the door.
• Wider internal doorways — applicable internal doors need a clear opening of at least 820mm (usually achieved with an 870mm door leaf).
• Wider hallways — corridors connected to those doors must be at least 1000mm wide.
• A step-free shower — at least one bathroom needs a hobless, step-free shower (a small lip up to 5mm to hold water is allowed).
• Grab-rail reinforcement — walls around the toilet, shower and bath need backing so grab rails can be fitted later without tearing out tiling.

None of this makes a home look like a hospital. A 1000mm hallway simply feels generous, a hobless shower is the high-end look most clients want anyway, and wall reinforcement is completely invisible once the room is finished.

What it means for your design — and your budget

This is where it pays to get it right at concept stage. Designed in from the first sketch, these features add very little — they’re mostly about where walls, doors and the shower go, not expensive materials. Discovered late, or retrofitted after the build, the same outcomes get costly: widening a doorway or re-grading a shower floor means demolition, re-waterproofing and re-tiling.

Because I cost a design against how it’s actually built, the Livable Housing requirements are folded into the plan and the build cost from the outset, rather than appearing as a surprise at certification.

How it fits with the rest of your approval

The Livable Housing Standard is one piece of a bigger compliance picture — energy efficiency, overlays, setbacks and the approval pathway all sit alongside it. Our overview of Gold Coast building codes and regulations and the Gold Coast council approval process put it in context. The point is that a good designer is checking all of these together — not solving one and tripping over another.

Exemptions and renovations

A couple of practical exceptions worth knowing:

• Certain narrow lots and particular small pre-built homes are exempt from the livable housing provisions, with that exemption currently extended to 30 September 2026.
• For renovations, bathroom and toilet work doesn’t have to comply where it isn’t reasonable or practical — for example, where the wall framing isn’t being exposed.

Whether your specific project is caught, exempt, or somewhere in between comes down to your site and scope, which is exactly the kind of thing I check early.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this apply to renovations or just new homes?

It’s aimed at new Class 1a homes. Renovations are treated more flexibly — for instance, bathroom work is exempt where complying isn’t reasonable or practical.

Will it make my home cost more to build?

Designed in from the start, the impact is minimal. The expensive version is retrofitting these features later, which is exactly what the standard is designed to avoid.

Does my home have to be fully wheelchair-accessible?

No. This is a set of basic livable features — step-free shower, wider doors and halls, future-proofed walls — not full adaptable or wheelchair-specific design.

I’m on a tight or sloping block — does step-free entry still apply?

There are exemptions for certain narrow lots (currently to 30 September 2026), and on a sloping site step-free entry is a design-and-levels problem I solve as part of the concept. It’s very often achievable with the right approach.

Designing it in, not bolting it on

The Livable Housing Standard isn’t something to fear — it’s a small set of sensible features that make a home work better for longer. The trick is having them considered from the first concept, by someone who understands both the rules and how they’re actually built. That’s the whole point of construction-informed design.

If you’re planning a new Gold Coast home and want it designed to comply comfortably — without it ever feeling like a compromise — Request a Consultation and let’s work through it together.