NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia all have building reform underway. Each has picked a different constraint to fix, and almost none of it has started yet.
Four states are rewriting the rules that govern building work. What gets less attention is that they are not converging on the same answer.
NSW has legislated approvals and certifier conduct. Queensland is working through licensing and home warranty settings. Victoria rebuilt its regulator first and is filling in the rules underneath. Western Australia has not legislated at all, and is still asking what a building contract should contain.
Read side by side, they are an argument about where the binding constraint actually sits.
What NSW passed, and what has actually started
The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Act 2026 cleared both Houses of NSW Parliament in August 2026 and received assent on 14 August.
Building Commission NSW groups the reforms into four areas on its building productivity reforms page: prefabricated and modular buildings, a modernised approvals system, dispute resolution for occupied apartment buildings, and certifier conflict of interest.
Almost none of it is operating. Two items in Schedule 3 commenced on assent. The rest commences on a day appointed by proclamation, once the associated regulations are developed, with industry consultation running through 2026 and 2027.
The dispute resolution piece shows what that means. It is not a scheme sitting in the new Act. It is a regulation making power inserted into the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act 2020, a separate Act that was not repealed, and those regulations are unwritten.
Passed, assented, commenced
Three separate events, often reported as one. A Bill passes when both Houses agree on the same text. It becomes an Act on assent. Its provisions take legal effect on commencement, which can be a fixed date, a day appointed by proclamation, or different days for different parts. A provision assented but not commenced changes nothing on site.
NSW put its heaviest number on the certifier
The penalty change is the only part of the package with a figure attached. The maximum court imposed penalty for a certifier who does approvals work while holding a conflict of interest rises from $33,000 to $1.1 million, being 10,000 penalty units at the current NSW value of $110, and conviction triggers automatic suspension of registration. A thirty three fold increase on one category of conduct, inside a package otherwise built around removing steps.
It runs alongside a change pushing the other way. In May 2026 the regulator introduced Inspecting Up, which lets building surveyors in restricted registration classes carry out critical stage inspections one class above their own, supervised by the principal certifier, who still carries out the final one. The reason given was capacity: NSW has committed to 377,000 new homes by 2029 and needs certifiers to inspect them.
A thirty three fold increase on one category of conduct, inside a package otherwise built around removing steps.
Queensland went at licensing and insurance instead
Queensland’s Building Reg Reno runs in four tranches, three of them delivered. The third arrived through the Queensland Building and Construction Commission and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2025, which commenced 1 February 2026 and was largely about digitising the regulator.
Tranche 4 is the one with money in it. The Department of Housing and Public Works lists licensing thresholds and licence restorations, the threshold, cover and timeframes of the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme, QBCC internal review, consistent timeframes for NCC updates, a Queensland Housing Code and trust account changes. No tranche 4 Bill has been introduced.
One item arrived ahead of the legislation. The Queensland Housing Code has been released, with councils able to adopt it over a three year transition commencing 1 September 2026.
The contrast is the point. NSW is regulating the approval and who signs it. Queensland is regulating who is allowed to hold the licence and what the consumer gets when the job goes wrong.
Victoria rebuilt the regulator before it rebuilt the rules
Victoria started at the other end. The Building and Plumbing Commission was established on 1 July 2025, folding in the Victorian Building Authority, Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria and the domestic building insurance arm of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority. Planning Victoria tracks the wider reform program.
The pieces underneath landed on a staggered schedule. Security of payment changes commenced 15 April 2026. The First Resort Home Warranty Scheme commenced 1 July 2026, covering buildings up to three storeys where the contract value is $20,000 or more. Rectification orders run ten years past practical completion.
The developer bond scheme, which requires developers of apartment buildings four storeys and above to lodge a bond before applying for an occupancy permit, applies to building permits issued after 1 July 2027. The new principal Act, the Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Act 2026, was assented on 19 May 2026 and commences no later than 1 December 2027.
WA is still working out what the contract should say
Western Australia has not passed a package. It is reviewing the Home Building Contracts Act 1991, apart from home indemnity insurance settings, alongside the dispute resolution parts of the Building Services (Complaint Resolution and Administration) Act 2011.
A discussion paper was open for comment between 13 May and 24 June 2026, with final recommendations due to government in September 2026. Progress payments and the defined stages of residential construction are a named focus. A separate Bill introduced in May 2026 would let the Building Commissioner act earlier on a builder in trouble.
The Productivity Commission put approvals well down the list
The Productivity Commission released its interim report into housing supply regulation on 27 July 2026. It makes no recommendations, and instead identifies where reform effort would do the most work.
Its finding is that relaxing land use controls and coordinating enabling infrastructure are the changes most likely to lift housing supply. Approvals are in the report, but making them more efficient will not shift supply on its own.
Hold that next to the four state programs, because approvals, certification and practitioner conduct are exactly where the state effort has gone. The final report goes to government in March 2027.
Prefabrication is the question all four are circling
The NSW Act sets obligations across the manufacture, supply, transport, delivery and installation of prefabricated buildings, which the regulator describes as a chain of responsibility rather than a single point of sign off.
Victoria comes at it through the contract, raising deposit limits according to the proportion of modern methods of construction used and prescribing which forms of MMC count. Queensland goes to consistent timeframes for NCC updates instead. The question underneath is where responsibility sits when most of a house is finished before it reaches the site, and none of the four has answered it.
The dates that matter are in the regulations, not the Acts
Every one of these programs has a gap between the law being made and the day it changes anything. NSW has no commencement date. Victoria’s principal Act is a year away at the outside. Queensland’s tranche 4 has not been introduced. WA’s recommendations have not been published.
A collapse the size of the Bathla administration, where Teneo was appointed voluntary administrator on 25 August 2026, sharpens the conversation. It moves none of those dates.
What the four share is not a model. It is a bet, made four ways, on which part of the system is actually holding things up.
Frequently asked questions
Not in substance. The Act passed both Houses in August 2026 and received assent on 14 August 2026. Two items in Schedule 3 commenced on assent. Everything else commences on a day to be appointed by proclamation, and no date has been set. Building Commission NSW has said the reforms take effect once the associated regulations are developed, with industry consultation during 2026 and 2027.
The maximum court imposed penalty rises from $33,000 to $1.1 million, which is 10,000 penalty units at the current NSW penalty unit value of $110. A conviction also triggers automatic suspension of the certifier’s registration. Like the rest of the package, the provision is enacted but not yet commenced.
It applies to projects with a building permit issued after 1 July 2027, and covers apartment buildings of four storeys and above. The developer lodges the bond with the Building and Plumbing Commission before applying for an occupancy permit, and the funds can be directed to rectifying defects.
The Department of Housing and Public Works lists licensing thresholds and licence restorations, a review of the insurance threshold, cover amount and timeframes of the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme, streamlined QBCC internal review processes, a consistent approach to implementation timeframes for future NCC updates, a Queensland Housing Code, and further trust account changes. No tranche 4 Bill has been introduced to Parliament.
Its interim report of 27 July 2026 found that relaxing land use controls and better coordinating enabling infrastructure are the reforms most likely to lift housing supply, and that making approvals more efficient will not shift the dial on its own. The report makes no recommendations. The final report is due to government in March 2027.
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Last updated 22 September 2026.
This article provides general information only and does not constitute building, legal or financial advice. Commencement dates, regulations and state variations are subject to change. Confirm the requirements applying to a specific project with the relevant state regulator or your building certifier.
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