Should you be an owner-builder?
An owner-builder takes on a licensed builder's responsibilities on their own home. What NSW requires, who can apply, and what the role commits you to.
Written byEdway
The short answer
Being an owner-builder means holding a permit and taking on a licensed builder's responsibilities for work on your own home.
In New South Wales you need a permit for building work worth more than $10,000, and from $20,000 you also need the approved owner-builder education. Whether it suits you comes down to what you are prepared to take on.
What an owner-builder is
An owner-builder is a homeowner who holds a permit and takes on the role a licensed builder normally would.
That means ordering materials, engaging and coordinating contractors, and managing a construction project on your own residential property.
When NSW requires a permit
There are two thresholds, and they are different numbers.
You need an owner-builder permit for building work worth more than $10,000 on a dwelling where development consent is required.
From $20,000, NSW also asks for the approved owner-builder education, or an approved equivalent, before it will grant the permit. Below $20,000 the permit requirement still applies; the education requirement does not.
Generally you can hold one owner-builder permit every 5 years.
Who can apply
NSW sets conditions on who may hold a permit. You must:
- be at least 18
- own the residential land where the work will be done, or hold a prescribed interest in it
- intend to live in the completed home
- not have started the building work
- not be building on a property that is part of a multi-dwelling strata complex
What you take on
As an owner-builder you are responsible for the building work just as a fully licensed builder would be. That covers overseeing and supervising every tradesperson, ordering materials and managing the building site.
Some work stays off-limits. Electrical wiring, plumbing, draining and gasfitting, and air-conditioning and refrigeration work must be done by an appropriately licensed tradesperson. A permit does not cover that work.
If you sell the home later
If you sell within 7 years and 6 months of the permit being issued, the contract for sale has to include a consumer warning stating that an owner-builder permit was issued for the land, and the date it was issued.
The course is not the permit
The education and the permit are two separate steps.
Edway Training (RTO 91401) delivers the owner-builder course and issues the Statement of Attainment. NSW Fair Trading runs the permit scheme, and you apply for the permit yourself through Service NSW.
The course is built for the NSW scheme. It is not a portable national qualification — other states and territories run their own owner-builder schemes and set their own education rules.
Next step
For the units, delivery and what you need before enrolling, see the Owner Builder Course (NSW). There are no course prerequisites; you will need a current White Card when you apply for the permit itself.
The thresholds and eligibility rules are NSW Fair Trading's, not ours. If you are unsure whether your job crosses them, check with Service NSW before you enrol.
Questions about the course itself can go through the site's contact page.
Sources
- Service NSW — Apply for an Owner-Builder PermitThe $10,000 permit threshold, the $20,000 education threshold, and the documents and steps in a permit application
- Building Commission NSW — Working as an owner-builderOwner-builder responsibilities, the licensed-trades exclusions, and the disclosure rule when selling within 7 years and 6 months
- NSW Fair Trading — owner-builder permit schemeThe regulator responsible for the NSW owner-builder permit scheme
