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Transportable home rules in South Australia

From Modular Living Australia — the independent knowledge base Last updated: 8 Oct 2026

In South Australia a transportable home in a residential park is covered by the Residential Parks Act 2007 where the park is the resident's principal place of residence, which by law means for 60 days or longer.^[2][3] Disclosure must be given at least 14 days before a site agreement, and a resident selling the dwelling must first offer it to the park owner.^[1][4]

South Australia regulates transportable homes in parks through the Residential Parks Act 2007, and does so in a way that sits closer to ordinary tenancy law than the systems in New South Wales or Queensland. The Act is generous on disclosure and comparatively strict on the park owner's paperwork obligations. It also contains one provision that materially affects what an owner can do with their dwelling, and that provision is the reason to read this page before signing anything.

What the Act covers §

The Residential Parks Act 2007 applies if there is anyone living in a park as their principal place of residence, and does not apply to agreements relating to properties used for holiday purposes. Mixed-use caravan parks may offer both long and short term accommodation in a mixture of manufactured or transportable homes or caravan sites^[2].

The residency test is expressed as a period: by law the site must be the resident's principal place of residence for 60 days or longer^[3].

A residential park is land with a group of sites or dwellings with access to common property — a bathroom or laundry, for example — available for rent, and a caravan park is given as an example. Residential park agreements operate in a similar manner to residential tenancies, with landlords known as park owners or operators and tenants known as residents^[1].

The types of homes in a park range from a constructed home such as a cabin or transportable home through to a moveable dwelling such as a caravan, and an agreement with the park owner is required whether a person rents only a site or a site and a dwelling^[3].

What counts as a dwelling §

The definition is deliberately broad. A dwelling means a structure designed and capable of being used for human habitation — whether fixed or moveable, but excluding tents — or a motor vehicle or trailer designed and capable of being used for human habitation^[1].

Note what that does not do: unlike Queensland's manufactured home definition, it does not turn on whether the structure is permanently attached to land. South Australia's category is defined by habitability and by location in a park, which makes the boundary easier to apply and harder to fall outside by accident.

Disclosure before signing §

Park owners must provide certain information before or at the time of entering an agreement, and — for a residential park site agreement — at least 14 days before entering into it, unless the agreement is short term and the resident has waived the requirement in writing^[1].

The prescribed information includes the park owner's contact details, contact details for a person who can conduct emergency repairs, whether the resident is entitled to any payment when they cease to occupy other than a bond, and the resident's rights to sell or relocate a dwelling^[1].

That last item is the one to read carefully. It is disclosed precisely because it varies, and it determines what the dwelling is worth as an asset.

The agreement itself must be in writing^[5] and must include the standard terms and information required by the Act and the Residential Parks Regulations 2022, along with the full details of the park owner and the resident; failure attracts an expiation notice or a substantial fine. Any cost of preparing the agreement is the park owner's responsibility under section 13, and under section 11 the park owner must give the resident a copy within set timeframes^[6]. The resident cannot be charged for preparation^[3].

The park owner gets first refusal on a sale §

This is the provision most likely to surprise an owner, and it is worth stating exactly.

Where a resident rents a site but owns their dwelling and passes away, the dwelling passes to the estate as an asset and can be sold if the beneficiary does not wish to live in it. If the dwelling is to be sold, the resident must first offer it to the park owner for a market value agreed between the person selling the dwelling and the park owner^[4].

Two things follow. The dwelling is genuinely an asset that survives the resident and forms part of the estate — that is a meaningful protection. But the disposal route is not open-market in the first instance, and the price is a market value agreed between seller and park owner rather than one established by competitive sale.

Anyone treating a South Australian park home as a liquid asset should understand that mechanism before purchase, and should read it alongside the disclosed rights to sell or relocate^[1]. The broader tenure question is covered in Valuation and resale of modular homes.

Rent increases §

The date fixed for a rent increase must be at least 12 months after the date of the agreement or, where there has been a previous increase under section 21, the last increase^[2].

Agreements may be fixed term — a set period such as five or ten years — or periodic, with a start date and no specified end date^[2]. Periodic agreements continue until either the resident or the park operator gives written notice to end them, and operators need not offer the same type of agreement to every resident^[3].

The mix matters. A fixed term of five or ten years buys certainty of tenure; a periodic agreement does not, and two neighbours in the same park may be on materially different footings.

Park rules and unfair terms §

Park rules occupy an unusual position. A park owner may make written amendments to park rules for a residential park, and the Legislative Instruments Act 1978 does not apply to them^[5] — so they are not subject to the scrutiny that applies to subordinate legislation.

Against that, the Act gives residents a direct remedy on the agreement itself: under section 45 a resident may apply to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to change or delete a term that is harsh or unconscionable^[6].

There is also an anti-discrimination provision worth knowing. Under section 17, a potential resident cannot be refused entry on the basis that a child will be living on the rented property, except where the park is limited to persons over 50 years of age or the manager resides in or adjacent to the dwelling^[6].

Residents also have a collective mechanism: residents from at least five different occupied sites may elect a residents' committee, and where more than 20 fixed term site agreements are in place the park owner must take reasonable steps to ensure a committee is formed^[2].

What is not covered here §

This guide does not cover the approval pathway for a transportable dwelling on ordinary private land in South Australia, which is a planning and building question under the Planning and Design Code and is dealt with, for secondary dwellings, in Granny flat rules in South Australia.

Also not covered by the sources compiled here: termination grounds and notice periods; bond requirements; utility and electricity charging arrangements in parks; abandoned property provisions; and SACAT procedure. Penalty amounts stated in the sources have been omitted because they are indexed and change.

References §