On 23 May 2024, the Queensland Parliament passed the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Amendment Act 2024. The amendments aim to improve consumer protections for people living in manufactured home parks, and to address concerns such as rapidly rising site rents, difficulties when selling homes in a park, and inconsistent park regulation.
It is important for existing manufactured homeowners and prospective buyers to note that the changes are being introduced in stages throughout 2024, 2025 and 2026:
- From June 2024: Some protections (like rent caps) already apply.
- From early 2025: New documents and transparency rules start.
- From December 2025 (or by June 2026): Most of the big changes — including new site agreements and sale rules — take effect.
Key Changes to Manufactured Homes – What’s Being Introduced
1. Site Rent Increases and protections
Site rent increases are now limited to the higher of CPI or 3.5% per annum for new and existing site agreements.
For new site agreements, the permitted bases of increase will be prescribed. This means that from 6 December 2025, new site agreements must include only one or more of the prescribed bases for rent increases (e.g. CPI, fixed percentage, fixed dollar amount, etc).
2. Site agreements, disclosure and sales process
Under the reforms, when a manufactured home is sold within a park, in most cases the buyer and the park owner will need to enter into a new site agreement (in the approved form) instead of simply assigning the seller’s existing site agreement. Pre-contractual disclosure obligations will also be strengthened, and prospective buyers must receive the park comparison document, a “Home Owners Information Document”, and a copy of the site agreement at least 21 days before entering into a new site agreement.
3. Transparency, registration and accountability of parks
Park owners will now be required to prepare maintenance and capital replacement plans for each park, and these plans must be made available to homeowner committees, the department and on request to other homeowners. This will impose longer-term planning obligations on park owners. In addition, park owners must prepare a comparison document for each park including key information about site rent, communal facilities, services and utilities, and frequency of rent increases.
New parks must also apply for registration, and operating an unregistered manufactured home park will be an offence.
4. Buy-back / site rent reduction scheme
A new opt-in scheme for eligible homeowners will be in place, meaning that if a manufactured home has been on the market for more than 6 months and is yet to be sold, site rent is to be reduced by 25% and after a specified timeframe the park owner must buy the home.
There will also be revised protections for homeowners when a site agreement is terminated, and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal will have greater discretion to make orders about removal or transfer of a manufactured home in exchange for compensation.
5. Payment options and other homeowner rights
Park Owners must offer at least three approved methods for homeowners to pay site rent, including at least one free option.
For homeowners and buyers, the increased transparency and protections is intended to provide greater security, but they will also need to engage more actively to ensure they understand their rights and obligations under the new scheme.
For park owners, concerns have been raised that the increased regulation and limitations imposed on rent increases might impact investment in new development and viability of parks. The Queensland Government intends to review the operation of the reforms within three years to ensure balance is reached between consumer protection and industry viability.
The above is general information only, and it is important that you seek advice about your specific circumstances. If you’re considering buying or selling a manufactured home, or you are wanting advice on how the reforms might affect your existing site agreement, please contact our experienced team at Miller Sockhill Lawyers on 07 5444 4750.