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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Queensland's tenancy regulation was amended on 10 July 2026 to create two rental application forms for NDIS specialist disability accommodation, the Residential Tenancies Authority announced on 13 July. The same amendment widens two definitions that decide which lessors are covered by parts of the rules on rent increases and on rental applications.
Specialist disability accommodation, or SDA, is housing designed for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs, in the words of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It is funded through the plans of individual NDIS participants. It is also let under Queensland tenancy law like other rentals, by providers who are lessors under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008.
Two forms for one kind of housing
Since 1 May 2025, anyone applying for a rental in Queensland has done so on a standard form, and property managers and owners have had to use it, according to the RTA's summary of rental law changes. The standard forms are Form 22 for general tenancies and Form R22 for rooming accommodation.
Those forms had no place for the details that matter in SDA. The amendment adds a version of each.
| Form | Kind of agreement | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Form 22 | General tenancy | Applicants for other rentals |
| Form R22 | Rooming accommodation | Applicants for other rooms |
| Form 22b | General tenancy | SDA applicants and providers only |
| Form R22b | Rooming accommodation | SDA applicants and providers only |
Residential Tenancies Authority, 13 July 2026, and its summary of rental law changes.
The SDA versions let a provider set out the SDA building type and the SDA design category of the home, the RTA says, while staying consistent with the standard forms. Both new forms are marked as version 1, dated July 2026, on the RTA's forms pages.
Form 22b runs to 16 items. Most are the same as on the standard form: the details of the property manager or owner, the ways the application can be submitted, the number of occupants, the applicant's details and employment, documents on identity, ability to pay and suitability, rental history, two referees, pets, vehicles, the preferred start date and term, and the applicant's consent. The difference is in the second item, on the premises, which adds the building type and the design category to the address. The form tells the provider to fill these in and refers to the NDIS for the categories that apply.
Related readSydney and Canberra loosen while Brisbane's rental stock stays thinThe form does not assess NDIS funding
The RTA is explicit that Forms 22b and R22b do not test whether an applicant is eligible for NDIS funding. Applicants still complete the NDIS paperwork required for SDA separately. The form is the tenancy application and nothing more.
What building type and design category mean
The two terms come from the NDIS and not from tenancy law. The scheme's SDA Design Standard, published in October 2019 and applied to all new SDA from 1 July 2021, sorts homes by how they are designed. The building type describes what the dwelling is.
| Classification | Options |
|---|---|
| SDA design category | Improved liveability; robust; fully accessible; high physical support |
| SDA building type | Apartment; villa, duplex or townhouse; house; group home |
National Disability Insurance Scheme, SDA Design Standard and SDA provider pages.
The four design categories describe different kinds of built-in support. An improved liveability home has enhanced accessibility features. A robust home is built to be durable. A fully accessible home is designed for comprehensive physical access, and a high physical support home for people with the most significant support needs. An applicant needs both pieces of information, the category and the building type, to judge whether a home suits them.
The NDIS also sets conditions on the provider's side. Every SDA provider must be a registered NDIS provider, and every dwelling must be enrolled with the National Disability Insurance Agency. Residents pay what the scheme calls a reasonable rent contribution, and their own day-to-day costs such as utilities, while the SDA funding in their plan goes towards the cost of the home itself.
That split is why an SDA tenancy needed its own form. The tenancy and the funding are two arrangements with two sets of rules, and the application sits at the point where they meet.
The application rules that still apply
The new forms sit inside the application rules that began on 1 May 2025, and those rules protect an SDA applicant in the same way as any other.
According to the RTA's fact sheet on the application process, a managing party may ask only for what the standard form contains. Supporting documents fall into three groups, identity, ability to pay the rent and suitability for the tenancy, and no more than two documents may be required in each. Form 22b restates what cannot be asked for: details of legal action the applicant has taken, including earlier tenancy disputes and tribunal matters, the history of their bond claims, breach notices, and statements of bank or credit accounts that show transactions.
Related readCotality measures Brisbane's vacancy rate at 2.1% in SeptemberAn applicant must be offered at least two ways to submit the form, and one of them must not be a restricted way. A restricted way, the form explains, is one that makes the applicant hand personal information to an online platform collecting it for the property manager, or one that costs the applicant money, such as a fee for a background check.
The fact sheet also sets time limits on what is kept. The personal information of an unsuccessful applicant must be destroyed within three months of the successful tenancy starting. A tenant's information must be destroyed within seven years of the agreement ending. The RTA's page for Form R22b notes a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units for failing to follow the application process requirements.
A wider definition of exempt lessor
The second change concerns rent increases. Since 6 June 2024, according to the RTA's summary of rental law changes, rent increases in Queensland have been limited to one in 12 months, with the limit attached to the property and not to the tenancy. The agreement must state the date of the last increase, and a tenant may ask for evidence of that date, to be given within 14 days.
The legislation sets aside a group called exempt lessors. The RTA's summary says they are exempt from the minimum period between increases, and that the requirement to show the date of the last increase does not apply to them.
According to the RTA, that definition now includes two more groups: lessors who receive federal funding for social and affordable housing, and NDIS SDA providers, in both cases where the rent is based on household income. The amending regulation inserts a matching provision for rooming accommodation, so that providers of rooms on the same footing are treated the same way.
Related readCotality review puts Brisbane's median rent at $734, third among capitalsThe condition on income-based rent is the key to the change. When rent is set as a share of a household's income, it moves when that income moves, up or down, which is a different mechanism from a market rent reviewed once a year. The RTA's notice does not set out the reasoning behind the amendment, and it does not describe any other effect of the exemption.
A wider definition of relevant lessor
The third change sits in the application rules themselves. The RTA's forms pages explain the term: relevant lessors, as defined in section 57B of the Act, are not required to use the standardised application form. The fact sheet adds that this exemption applies to general tenancy agreements.
The amendment expands that group. The RTA says it now covers lessors funded under Housing Australia legislation and registered charities that provide housing to Australian Defence Force veterans. In the RTA's words, these are added to the lessors who do not need to use the rental application forms.
The notice gives the new scope of the term without further explanation. What the two added groups have in common is that they house people who qualify under a funding program or a charitable purpose, where the standard forms were written for rentals offered on the open market.
The instrument behind all three changes is the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Amendment Regulation 2026, numbered 99 of 2026 on the Queensland legislation website. The site records it as made on 9 July and notified on 10 July, the date the RTA gives for the change.
It amends the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation 2025, which is made under the 2008 Act. The provisions on application information are changed for general tenancies and for rooming accommodation, a new section prescribes the additional relevant lessors, a new part prescribes the additional exempt lessors and exempt providers, and the dictionary gains definitions of the NDIS terms. The SDA details are required only where the lessor is an SDA provider.
Who needs to act
For most tenants, owners and property managers, nothing changes. Forms 22 and R22 remain the forms for ordinary rentals, and the 12-month limit on rent increases applies as before.
The changes are for a small group:
- SDA providers, who should now use Form 22b or R22b for applications
- people applying for SDA, who will be handed those forms
- providers of income-based social and affordable housing with federal funding, and SDA providers charging income-based rent, who fall under the wider exempt lessor definition
- veterans' housing charities and lessors funded under Housing Australia legislation, who are now relevant lessors and are not required to use the standard application form.
A provider unsure which group it belongs to will find the tests in the regulation itself. The RTA's website carries the new forms.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
