Disability-friendly display home under construction

AUSTRALIA’S first display home for people with disabilities is now under construction in Armstrong Creek.

The $800,000 house in Unity Drive will be part of the Armstrong Mt Duneed display village, and is a collaboration between developers Villawood, St Laurence Housing Limited (a subsidiary of genU) and builder Burbank Homes.

The fully-accessible, three-bedroom home will open next year and showcase a variety of assistive features and technologies designed to support people with disabilities to live as independently as possible.

These include an electronically adjustable kitchen, electrically operated blinds and windows, and a high physical support bedroom with hoist.

“To my knowledge, there isn’t another display house in Australia built to this specification, with all the bells and whistles,” manager of housing services for genU Matthew Cheal said.

He said the house was part of St Laurence Housing Limited’s MiCASA range of specialist disability housing options.

“There’s some fairly basic things you’ve got to take into account – the bedroom’s got to be this big, a bathroom’s got to be this size – so you factor that in when you’re thinking about a house design, it makes for a big house.

“You could have three unrelated people living in a house, so you’ve got to have a couple of living areas. You would struggle to get those sort of requirements in a house less than this size.”

He said the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had changed the way the housing market operated, and he expected there would be interest from the six per cent of NDIS recipients who were eligible for funded housing.

Burbank Homes managing director Jarrod Sanfilippo said his company was excited to see the project come to life.

“Not only is this design a first in the Australian market, but it’s a first for Burbank – we’ve not designed anything like this in the past, which makes this endeavour extra special.”