About residential land lease communities
In a land lease community, you own the home but lease the land where the home sits from the community operator. You pay rent for the right to occupy the site with a manufactured home or a moveable dwelling. Even when a community has a rule that residents must be over a certain age to live there, it is not a retirement village.
There are more than 500 land lease communities in New South Wales, accommodating about 40,000 residents. They offer a variety of services, facilities and financial arrangements. Some cater only to permanent homeowners. Others have a mixture of tourists, tenants and long-term casual occupants. There are also different types of operators within the industry, ranging from large corporations to small family businesses.
Register of land lease communities
The residential land lease communities register lists all land lease communities registered with NSW Fair Trading. The register records any disciplinary or enforcement action taken by NSW Fair Trading against a community operator. Prospective residents can use the register to search for specific communities or to identify communities in a certain post code or local government area.
To search for a land lease community, go to the Accommodation Registers Page.
Residential land lease community operators
All land lease communities are covered by the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013. To view and download the forms and mandatory publications for residential land lease communities, visit the Forms section of our website.
Note: different laws apply to tenants who are renting a home from the operator or another person in a land lease community.
Moving into a residential land lease community
Moving into a land lease community usually involves buying an existing home from an outgoing homeowner or buying a home directly from the operator.
Before you move in, you must:
- be given a disclosure statement and a copy of a Fair Trading publication called Moving into a residential land lease community (PDF, 739.19 KB)
- a written site agreement and site condition report
- a 14 day cooling-off period
- not be restricted in seeking advice
- not pay any fees or charges until you sign an agreement.
This section contains detailed information for prospective homeowners about the steps, costs and financial arrangement options you need to know about before committing to move into a land lease community:
All land lease communities are covered by the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013.
Disposal of uncollected goods
The Uncollected Goods Act 1995 provides how goods left behind or abandoned by an occupant or resident at the end of an agreement can be disposed.
See uncollected goods for more information on the rules for the disposal of goods.
Forms and publications
Statutory review
A statutory review of the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 20133 was completed in 2021.
The review found the Act remains relevant and effective but also identified opportunities to improve the Act. A report on the findings of the review was tabled in NSW Parliament on 29 November 2021. You can download and read the report4 on the Parliament of NSW website.
Following the statutory review, the NSW Government passed the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Amendment Act 2024 (the Amendment Act) on 21 June 2024. The Amendment Act introduced a number of changes to the rights and responsibilities of residents and operators.
Visit the New laws for residential land lease communities page for more information on these changes.
The changes implement 21 of the 48 recommendations from the statutory review. The remaining recommendations will be considered in future reforms.
Forms
Visit the Forms section of our website to view and download the mandatory forms and publications for residential land lease communities.
Commonly asked questions
We also have provided answers to commonly asked questions to help you understand electricity in a community with an embedded network.