2021-12-13 GC Agenda - Item 8 -Attachment 1 - Housing Needs Assessment

4.     at least 1 car park is provided on the premises for use by support workers.
Consequentially the Noosa Plan 2020 makes the use accepted development in the following zones:
Low Density Residential; Medium Density Residential; High Density Residential; and Rural
Residential, providing it meets the requirements of the Regulation.
It is also a consistent use in other zones including the Community Facilities Zone and the Rural
Zone. While it currently requires assessment this might be revisited for small facilities.
Some community residences have been built, including two in Tewantin built to platinum standard of
Liveable Housing by Endeavour Foundation as part of their “My Home, My Life initiative”.
The reported construction cost for one such purpose built five bedroom community residence to this
level of accessibility is over $570,000, in addition to land cost. 28
A community residence could be in a modular format with separate bedsits for the residents and
communal kitchen, dining and recreation space. The particular built form and accessibility standards
may differ depending on end users.


7.4.5            Rooming Accommodation
It’s not uncommon for a resident owner to informally rent spare rooms to boarders or lodgers. As this
would typically operate on a cash basis there is little way it would come to the attention of Council
and is generally encouraged as a means of utilising capacity within the existing housing stock. The
Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 does not apply if the tenant is a
boarder or a lodger (except to the extent that it can relate to the taking of a bond if relevant).
Further, where unrelated people co-lease a property under a general tenancy agreement it is not
considered to be rooming accommodation but rather just a share house. All tenants share joint
responsibility for the whole property and reside as a single household.
Rooming accommodation is specifically defined as the use of premises for—
     a) residential accommodation, if each resident—
            i.   has a right to occupy 1 or more rooms on the premises; and
           ii.   does not have a right to occupy the whole of the premises; and
          iii.   does not occupy a self-contained unit, as defined under the Residential Tenancies
                 and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, schedule 2, or has only limited facilities
                 available for private use; and
          iv.    shares other rooms, facilities, furniture or equipment outside of the resident’s room
                 with 1 or more other residents, whether or not the rooms, facilities, furniture or
                 equipment are on the same or different premises; or
     b) a manager’s residence, an office or providing food or other services to residents, if the use
        is ancillary to the use in paragraph (a).
Importantly premises don’t qualify as Rooming Accommodation if residents occupy self-contained
units (i.e. it cannot be for example a studio apartment with kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities).
Bigger examples of rooming accommodation include boarding houses, residential hostels29, a
monastery and off-site student accommodation, however it may just be domestic scale such as a
four or five bedroom house.
The State’s Residential Tenancy Authority provides for formal rooming accommodation agreement
which is a legally binding contract between the tenant and the property manager/owner, which like
any other lease will include conditions or rules. This includes prescribed rules applied to all rooming
accommodation in Queensland and house rules the property manager/owner can make. Rooming
accommodation agreements are not required if there are three or less rooms available for residents.


28Building approval PC20/0686 issued August 2020
29 As distinct from a backpackers hostel which is a form of Short-term accommodation




Noosa Housing Needs Assessment 2021                                                            Page 62