Check you need one
Work worth over $10,000 on residential property you own, and you’re not hiring a licensed builder to run the whole job. Under $10,000: no permit. Over $20,000: everything below plus the course and home warranty insurance rules.
Check you’re eligible
You must be 18 or over, be on the title (or a shareholder, or hold a lease of at least 3 years registered with NSW Land Registry Services), and plan to live in the finished home. It’s a scheme for building your own home, not for development — and you can’t get a new permit within 5 years of your last one, with limited exceptions.
Get your DA or CDC approved first
The application needs an approved Development Application or Complying Development Certificate — not just lodged. This takes the longest, and nothing after it can start until it’s approved.
Get your White Card
The general construction induction (White Card) is needed whatever the value. SafeWork NSW requires it to be taught live — in a classroom or a virtual classroom with a real trainer. A click-through online card isn’t valid in NSW.
Over $20,000: do the approved course
The owner-builder course, run by approved training organisations. Checked prices are currently $119–$189, online and self-paced — every provider compared. No certificate, no permit.
Apply through Service NSW
Bring your ID, proof of title or registered lease, the approved DA or CDC, your White Card, and (over $20,000) your course certificate. Service NSW sets the fee — check it when you apply.
What the permit commits you to
- You’re the principal. Every trade job over $5,000 (incl GST) needs a written contract — about 18 on a typical new home. Every package of residential building work over $20,000 means the trade must give you a home warranty insurance certificate before you pay (demolition and floor coverings are outside this) — HBCF explained.
- Trades can send you payment claims. You have 10 business days to reply in writing, or you owe the full amount — what to do when one arrives.
- It stays with the property. Sell within 7½ years and the sale contract must disclose the owner-builder work.
- You owe the statutory warranties — 6 years for major defects, 2 for others — to whoever owns the house after you.
How eSiteOffice helps an owner-builder
- Get comparable quotes. Every trade quotes on the same form, scope of works and conditions, through a web page — nothing for them to install. You can compare like with like before you choose.
- Turn the chosen quote into a contract. Signed electronically and filed.
- Every change priced and agreed before it’s built. Changes in writing, or they don’t happen.
- Every deadline tracked. Any trade you hire can send you a payment claim. Miss the reply date and you owe the full amount. eSiteOffice counts the days for you.
- A file the bank can check. Contracts, changes, payments, photos and sign-offs — dated and in order.
Opens in October. Register to be one of the first to use it and keep the launch price for as long as you stay.