October 2025

A message from the Chair of the State Planning Commission - Craig Holden

Last week, the Minister for Planning adopted the first stage of the Accommodation Diversity Code Amendment. This critically important code amendment will make it easier to build much needed apartment-style homes including student accommodation, residential flat buildings, communal and supported accommodation and retirement living – the kind of housing our state needs as our population grows and changes.

The State Planning Commission is committed to the introduction of these new, innovative planning policies that support diverse and affordable housing opportunities to benefit all South Australians.

Stage two of the code amendment will determine suitable locations to apply the new ‘Significant Retirement Facility and Supported Accommodation Sites Overlay’ and is currently being finalised in consultation with local councils.

And speaking aged care, recent regulation changes made to the planning system now recognises aged care as essential infrastructure, which will make the development of quality aged care facilities faster and more straightforward.

On the back of these changes, earlier in the month I had the pleasure of joining a panel at The Property Council of Australia's Retirement Living Conference. It was a great afternoon of meaningful discussion and connection which explored how a coordinated approach between industry and government can help deliver better opportunities for all South Australians to age well in their communities.

Message from the Executive Director Planning and Building – Marc Voortman

We might be heading towards the end of the year, but the planning work continues at a pace here at DHUD – especially among our Code Amendment Team.

As Craig mentioned, stage one of the Accommodation Diversity Code Amendment has been adopted. Alongside this, the Playford Alive East Code Amendment and the Sellicks Beach Growth Area Joint Amendment have just concluded public consultation - thank you to all those who provided feedback.

The team are also currently working on the draft Seaton Code Amendment, Inner West Code Amendment and Smithfield Regeneration Code Amendment. Each of these amendments aims to boost housing supply and diversity, and we will have more information to share with you about these amendments soon.

With the Code Amendment Tracking System (CATS) now fully operational, the code amendment process has never been more efficient. I’d like to thank both the Code Amendment and PlanSA teams for their tireless work to facilitate a responsive and agile planning system which can help us address the big challenges of housing supply, affordability and sustainable growth.

First stage of Accommodation Diversity Code Amendment adopted

Part 1 of the Accommodation Diversity Code Amendment has been adopted by the Minister for Planning, changing the rules for building apartment-style homes, communal and supported living buildings, and retirement living across SA.

This code amendment will improve housing diversity, provide more flexibility and make it easier to build much needed housing for South Australians.

Practice Guideline 4 – Communal Recreation Spaces and Shared Facilities has also been adopted and will come into effect following Gazettal. The guideline outlines the features of communal spaces and shared facilities that should be provided to meet the needs of residents in co-living and student accommodation.

Concordia Code Amendment now finalised

The Concordia Code Amendment has now been finalised and adopted by the Minister for Planning. The code amendment rezones approximately 995 hectares of rural land at Concordia to accommodate 10,000-12,000 additional homes over the next 30 years.

A master-planned community of this size will include town centres, healthcare, education, major open space, public transport and other infrastructure.

Changes to the Code amendment were made in response to feedback received from affected landowners, community, industry, local and state government and advocacy groups. Thank you to all those who provided feedback. Full details of the feedback received and the changes made can be viewed in the engagement report.

Work is underway to finalise the infrastructure scheme for the Concordia growth area, in consultation with affected landowners and key government and industry stakeholders.

Proposal to rezone land at Sellicks Beach for future housing

Public consultation has now closed on the proposal to rezone land at Sellicks Beach to deliver a new master-planned community that could accommodate about 1,700 new homes. Thank you to all those who provided feedback.

The Sellicks Beach Growth Area Joint Amendment proposes rezoning land at Sellicks Beach and updating the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan to support a future master-planned community, including a mix of housing types, recreational areas, community amenities and retail spaces.

A Joint Amendment enables two planning instruments to be changed at the same time, and this is the first instance of its use under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016.

Recent regulation changes

On Thursday 11 September, the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017 (the Regulations) were amended.

The changes impact the assessment of data centres, wastewater treatment plants and aged care facilities. They also change approvals for tree damaging activities undertaken by SA Water.

Accredited Professionals Scheme update

The Accredited Professionals Scheme Accreditation Authority has recently undertaken a review and edit of the following key documents:

A general update was undertaken to ensure the documents remain current, and the design and presentation has been ‘refreshed’ to make them more user-friendly.

The Accreditation Authority has also provided further advice and clarification in the documents where required.

Further information about the Accredited Professionals Scheme can be found on the PlanSA portal. And any questions or comments can be emailed to the Accredited Professionals Scheme via dhud.apsqueries@sa.gov.au.

Engineering requirements for land division: what we heard

Consultation on the draft engineering requirements for land division was open from 20 May to 15 July 2025.

More than 90 submissions were received from councils, industry, state government agencies, planning professionals and the community.

All feedback on the draft Design Standard 1 – Engineering Requirements for Land Division, the technical manual and standard drawings is now being collated and carefully considered.

Further work will be undertaken in response to feedback regarding aspects of the design standard’s operation and technical details in the documents.

A summary of what we heard during the consultation, is now available on the project’s YourSAy webpage.

Government of South Australia - Department for Housing and Urban Development