The NDIS SDA price calculator is a free spreadsheet from the NDIA that works out the maximum annual price for a Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) home. It calculates the price from the home’s design category, building type, location and number of residents. The current version applies to 2026-27, from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.
The calculator was built mainly for SDA providers and investors, but participants, families and support coordinators can use it too. It’s a quick way to check that the price a provider claims for a home sits within the NDIS limit.
What is Specialist Disability Accommodation?
SDA is housing designed for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. The NDIS funds the home itself, meaning the building and its specialist features, not the support provided inside it.
Support from workers, such as help with personal care or overnight assistance, is funded separately. Most people living in SDA have both SDA funding and funding for supports like Supported Independent Living in their NDIS plan.
Where can you find the SDA price calculator?
You can open the 2026-27 calculator using the button below. The NDIA also publishes it on its SDA pricing and payments page, alongside the SDA pricing arrangements for 2026-27, and releases a new version each financial year.
Since 24 September 2026, maximum SDA prices have also been listed in the NDIS pricing schedule for SDA, which forms part of the Minister’s pricing determination under the new NDIS laws.
What information does the calculator ask for?
The calculator works from details about the home, not the person living in it. It asks for:
- The design category of the home
- The building type, such as an apartment, a villa, duplex or townhouse, a house for 2 or 3 residents, or a group home for 4 or 5 residents
- The number of residents
- Whether there’s an onsite overnight room for support staff
- The location, because prices differ across Australia
- Whether the home is a new build or existing housing
What are the SDA design categories?
The SDA design standard sets out four categories, each suited to different needs:
- Improved Liveability homes have features that make daily life easier for people with sensory, intellectual or cognitive impairment, such as clear sightlines and good lighting
- Fully Accessible homes are built for people with significant physical impairment, with wide doorways and step-free access throughout
- Robust homes use strong materials and thoughtful layouts to reduce the risk of harm, for people with complex behaviour support needs
- High Physical Support homes add features like ceiling hoists and backup power, for people with significant physical impairment and very high support needs
Each mix of design category and building type has its own price limit. A single-resident apartment, for example, has a much higher limit per person than a room in a five-person group home.
What does the calculator result mean?
The result is the maximum annual SDA amount per participant for that specific home. It’s a ceiling, not a quote, and a provider can’t claim more than this from a participant’s SDA funding.
The funding is paid to the SDA provider from the participant’s plan. The participant doesn’t receive the money directly, and SDA funding can only be used for SDA. It can’t be moved to pay for therapy, support workers or other services.
What else does someone living in SDA pay?
The calculator doesn’t include the costs the resident pays themselves. Every SDA resident pays a reasonable rent contribution to their provider, plus everyday costs like electricity, internet and food.
For someone receiving the Disability Support Pension, the reasonable rent contribution can’t be more than 25% of the basic rate of the pension, plus 25% of any pension supplement or youth disability supplement, plus all Commonwealth Rent Assistance they receive.
In Victoria, SDA residents have extra protections under residential tenancy laws. Providers can’t raise rent more than once every six months, and residents can ask Consumer Affairs Victoria to assess a rent increase they think is too high, within 30 days of getting notice.
Why is the calculator useful for participants and families?
Two SDA homes in the same suburb can carry very different prices. The calculator shows why, so families can compare options with a clearer view of what the NDIS pays and what the resident pays.
It also helps before signing a service agreement. Checking a provider’s figures against the calculator, and asking how rent, utilities and shared costs are worked out, can prevent surprises after a move. The NDIA doesn’t place people in homes or match them with providers, so participants choose where they live, often with help from a support coordinator.
What other support might someone need when moving into SDA?
Moving home is a big change, especially for someone who relies on routine or finds new people and places stressful. Planning the move in small steps, keeping familiar belongings and routines, and preparing staff in advance can all help someone settle.
For people moving into Robust SDA because of complex behaviour support needs, a current behaviour support plan matters just as much as the building. Positive Behaviour Support can help a person and their support team prepare for the move and adjust once they’re there. ABA therapy can build daily living skills like cooking, cleaning and managing a weekly routine in a new home. For children with SDA funding, early childhood intervention can support the whole family through the change.
This article is general information about NDIS SDA pricing for 2026-27. It isn’t financial or legal advice, and SDA eligibility and funding decisions are made by the NDIA.
Behaviour support for people living in SDA
Helping Hands Behaviour Support (HHBS) supports people through big changes like moving into Specialist Disability Accommodation, helping them and their support teams settle in well. We’re an NDIS-registered provider of Positive Behaviour Support, ABA therapy and early childhood intervention, working with children and adults at home or at school. We work with NDIA-managed, plan-managed and self-managed plans.
If you or someone you support is moving into SDA and has NDIS funding for behaviour support or therapy, phone our office on 0406 920 296 or message our team. Support coordinators helping a participant prepare for a move into SDA are welcome to make an online referral, and we’ll be in touch to talk it through.
