Buying a home ‘off the plan’ allows home buyers to commit to purchasing a property before it is built and can help people get into the property market. It also helps developers to finance the new residential building project.
The NSW Government is proposing reforms to build greater confidence in the housing market by preventing developers from delaying off the plan settlement dates and providing home buyers with more certainty.
The Office of the Registrar General is exploring ways to improve these and other property laws to:
- make buying off the plan more transparent, fair and certain for home buyers
- simplify the process for removing out-of-date covenants on land titles.
Protecting home buyers
We ask for your feedback on options to give home buyers a clearer understanding of when they can expect to move into their new home, reducing potential uncertainty and financial risk. The options include:
- making sunset clauses in contracts mandatory so buyers can withdraw if the project is not completed or sunset events do not occur by the set date
- requiring developers to disclose the status of the project against development milestones so buyers have a better understanding of timeframes and potential risks
- limiting the developer’s ability to extend sunset dates only for certain reasons beyond the developer’s control such as weather or supply issues, and imposing time limits on extensions
- protecting buyers’ contractual interests through a form of notice on the development land's title.
Making it simpler to remove outdated covenants
Covenants are private agreements that limit how land can be used or developed. Some covenants can continue indefinitely and limit how future owners can build on or use their land.
Changes being considered include:
- expanding the type of obsolete covenants that can be removed after 12 years
- introducing time limits on some new covenants.
The Contracts and Covenants discussion paper gives further details.
Share your feedback in a survey, submission or story, by 7 March 2025.
Your responses will inform the NSW Government’s decision-making about possible changes to legislation.