The Opal Tower and Mascot Towers Fallout: What It Changed for Apartment Buyers

On Christmas Eve 2018, residents of Opal Tower in Sydney Olympic Park were evacuated after structural cracking was discovered. Six months later, in June 2019, residents of Mascot Towers in Mascot were evacuated for similar reasons. The two crises forced a public reckoning with the state of NSW apartment construction.

The NSW Government appointed David Chandler OAM as Building Commissioner in 2019 with a mandate to clean up the industry. The Commissioner's office was given expanded investigation and enforcement powers, and his team has since intervened in dozens of suspect buildings before completion.

The legislative response came in 2020 with two acts: the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (statutory duty of care, registration, declared designs), and the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act 2020 (Commissioner's enforcement powers).

The combined effect has been to put real teeth into NSW apartment regulation for the first time. Designers and engineers must register. Critical design documentation must be lodged. Defective work can be the subject of stop-work and rectification orders.

For apartment buyers in NSW, the post-Opal regulatory regime is meaningfully better than what existed before, but independent inspection at handover remains essential. The changes are still rolling out.