What is SDA, really?

The question

You may have heard the letters SDA. Maybe someone told you it’s a great investment. Maybe someone told you to stay well away. Both have some truth in them.

Over the next few minutes, you’ll see how SDA works, from the ground up. You’ll comprehend the good, the bad and the ugly. You’ll see why I’m so excited right now. Done well, SDA can be one of the rare times when both sides win: you, and the person who calls the home their own. And you’ll get clarity, leading to confidence, whatever you decide.

What SDA is, and who it’s for

SDA stands for Specialist Disability Accommodation. It’s housing funded through the NDIS for participants with an extreme functional impairment or very high support needs, where the NDIS is satisfied it will lead to better outcomes. The people who live in these homes are called participants. To live in one, a participant needs SDA funding included in their NDIS plan.

So if you’re picturing ordinary rental housing, this isn’t it. It’s a home built for a person whose daily life depends on the home working for them, from the width of a doorway to the space beside a bed. For some, it’s the first home that has ever truly fitted them. Keep that person in mind, because you’ll meet them in every chapter.

Why the demand exists, and why it’s local

Some participants wait a long time for a suitable home, and some are living in hospital or in aged care while they wait. The NDIS publishes data four times a year on participants looking for SDA in each area.

But here’s the part that matters most to you: demand is local. In some places there are waiting lists. In others, there are empty homes. An SDA home in the wrong place can sit vacant, however well it’s built. So the first thing you’d want to know about any SDA home isn’t how nice it looks. It’s who needs it, right there.

The design categories

Every SDA home is built to a design category: Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust, or High Physical Support. Each suits different needs. Inside, you might find wider doorways, ensuites, an on-site room where overnight support staff can stay, and in High Physical Support homes, backup power for medical equipment.

The NDIS sets the minimum standard for each category. Hold on to that word, minimum. You’ll see why it matters, because the minimum is where the problems began.

What went wrong with SDA

SDA has had a hard few years, and you deserve to hear it straight. Too many homes were built to the bare minimum, and some were built where few people needed them. In my view, too many were built by people chasing the income, not the person who would live there. Some of those homes are sitting empty today.

If you’ve heard bad stories about SDA, this is where most of them come from. That’s the bad and the ugly, and it’s done real damage to how people see SDA. But since July 2021, every new SDA home has had to meet a national design standard, checked by an independent assessor, and that standard is being reviewed again now. The best people in this sector are showing what it looks like when it’s done properly.

The usual way, and a better way

Here’s how SDA is often done. You buy land from a developer. You sign with a builder. Someone else certifies the design. Someone else again finds the participants. And you sit in the middle, trying to join it all together, often without knowing what you don’t know.

The one team MRD has chosen does it differently. Their homes are architecturally designed. And one team project manages the whole job:

• choosing a site where the demand is real;
• the design and its certification;
• the build;
• finding the right participants;
• the day those participants move in and the home is settled.

They coordinate every part of it, and they manage it closely. You’re not left running between the boxes. And you can check that for yourself.

Who does what

Once a home is finished, the roles are clear. As the owner, you don’t manage participants. Usually you sign a head lease with a registered SDA provider, who finds participants, manages the home and handles payments. Care usually comes from a separate support provider.

You’ll often hear two terms mixed up here. SDA is the home itself. SIL, Supported Independent Living, is the help with daily tasks that some participants receive in that home. They’re separate, and they’re often run by different providers. So if the care isn’t working, the care can change, and the participant stays in their home.

Why these homes are different: space

Now to the homes themselves. The first thing you notice when you walk into one of this team’s homes is space. The team says their homes are designed around 30 to 40 percent larger than most SDA homes.

Walk through with me, room by room.

• Bedrooms: in the most supported homes, the rules require room for a queen bed with clear space around it, about 3.5 by 3.6 metres. Theirs are 4 by 4, before you count the wardrobe or the ensuite.
• Bathrooms: the rules set what has to fit, not the size of the room. Theirs is 3 by 2.4 metres. The shower has its own dedicated space, with the toilet on the other side of the room, so nobody’s sitting in a wet room.
• Hallways: the rules ask for 1,000 or 1,200 millimetres, depending on the home. Theirs is 1,500, narrowing to 1,200.
• Doors: the doorways are built so that almost anything can be moved in and out: a wide door with an extra panel that opens beside it.
• Kitchen: a proper kitchen, with room for more than one person to work in it at once, not a bench along a wall.

Why does that matter to you? Because participants and their families walk through a lot of homes. The team tells me that when they walk through one of these, they come back. And the providers who place participants know it.

The team tells me only a handful of builders in Australia are building SDA at this size.

Why these homes are different: the people

If you’re going to own a home that someone else designs, builds and looks after, you’d want to know what drives them. I wanted to know too. So I put one question to the team: what are you most proud of?

One said it’s that their homes stand up to scrutiny anywhere: the size, the quality, the thought behind every room. There’s nothing to hide and nothing to fudge. When they walked through their first one, their reaction was simple: “I’d live here.”

Another said it comes down to one word: caring. Caring for the people who live there, and for the people who own them. When you care, you don’t cut corners.

The third said two things. The first was the look on a resident’s face on the day they move in: the dignity, the joy. That’s the other half of the win, and it’s why the people doing this well do it. The second was the service to owners. They told me owners are kept in the loop at every step. When the rules change, everyone sits down together and it’s explained. Calls are answered, emails within a day, and problems are flagged early, before they become problems. When something goes wrong, like a neighbour who won’t fix a falling fence, the team deals with it, so the owner doesn’t carry the stress.

And if you’re a serious buyer wanting to know how a finished home is really performing, they’ll open the actual figures to your own accountant.

Why one team

You might wonder why the only SDA homes you’ll ever hear me talk about come from one team.

I watched SDA for years before I was willing to teach it, and I’ve looked closely at who’s building these homes and how. MRD has chosen to work with one team, and one team only. That isn’t a swipe at anyone else building SDA. It’s a standard, and it’s one you can test for yourself: the size of the homes, the care in the planning, and the way owners and residents are looked after, set beside anything else you’re shown. In my view, nothing else comes close, and that’s why their homes are the ones you see in this film.

Why I’m excited: a real win-win

Here’s why this excites me. It’s my opinion, not a promise.

All my working life, the deals worth doing have been the ones where nobody loses. You’d want that too. With a well-placed, well-built SDA home, both sides can win.

On your side, it’s a decision made with your eyes open. Say you’re within ten years of retirement, and you own property that looks good on paper. When your salary stops, the rent mostly goes back into the loan. The property pays for itself, and not much more. And you can’t eat a brick. An SDA home earns in a different way: most of what it earns is SDA funding at prices the NDIS sets, plus a rent contribution from the person who lives there. Whether that suits you is exactly what to check.

On the other side is a person with some of the highest needs in our community. Someone who may have been waiting in a hospital ward or an aged care bed for a home that fits them. For them, the win is a front door of their own, room to move, privacy, and the dignity and comfort that come with it. You don’t give that as a gift. It comes from a decision you make for yourself, done properly.

When the penny dropped on how both sides could win at once, the lights came on, and a whole lot of faces came to mind. Some of the people I’ve walked through it are now weighing up their own pathways, and for many of them it’s been a real “aha” moment. If you’re anywhere near that position, you’ll see why.

What to check, and the risks, plainly

Wherever you look, here’s what to check before anyone commits:

• Is demand confirmed in that exact spot, with transport, medical services and good care providers nearby?
• Is the design certified before the build, and certified again as built by an accredited assessor, so the home can be enrolled? Even then, enrolment isn’t automatic.
• Who is the team, and is the SDA provider involved early? Finding the right participants takes time.

And the risks, plainly:

• A room can sit vacant.
• Rules can change.
• When you sell, the buyers are a specialised group.
• A home built in the wrong place, or too small, can stay empty.

SDA isn’t for everyone. It may not be for you, and that’s worth knowing too.

Your next step

None of this means you need to do anything. It may not suit you at all. And if you’ve watched this far, you’ve already done the part most people skip: you’ve slowed down and looked at it properly.

If you’d like to see your own numbers, that’s what Position and Pathways is for. It takes everything you have today and the life you want, and sets your options side by side, on assumptions you can see and change. It won’t tell you what to do. It gives you something real to sit down with, with your partner, and with your accountant, before you decide anything.

Done well, SDA can be a win on both sides: a decision you make with your eyes open, and a real home, with dignity, for someone who needs it. That’s what I’ve seen.

Your first call with me is free, and you’ll come away with clarity, whatever you decide. The links are below.