16/03/2026
“There is huge demand for SDA”
You hear this statement often in the sector, and broadly speaking it is true.
There are many participants across Australia who need appropriate housing but the phrase 'There is huge demand' is misleading.
Demand in SDA is not a single pool.
It is fragmented and will vary by:
• Location
• Design category and build quality
• Support funding and rostering
• Participant compatibility
• SIL availability
• Local coordination networks
You miss something above and what may have had the potential to be a worthwhile project can fail.
This is why we sometimes see two things happen at the same time.
Participants stuck in hospital or unsuitable housing, and newly built SDA homes sitting vacant.
The problem is rarely that demand does not exist. The problem is assuming that demand is interchangeable.
It's not.
For developers and investors this is where early engagement matters. Projects can be approved, funded and built based on “general demand” assumptions or historic datasets. By the time the paint is dry, the local ecosystem required to support tenants may not exist yet. In some cases it either never did or won't for years. We've seen countless examples of this over the past 5 years all over Australia.
This is why early engagement with SDA providers, SIL operators and coordination networks matters so much. When those relationships exist before construction starts, tenant procurement becomes far more predictable.
When they do not, the matching challenge often appears much later in the process. Sometimes too late.
SDA works best when housing, support and coordination are aligned from the beginning but the sector still spends far more time talking about supply than it does about matching.
Question for the sector for those working in SDA development, placement or coordination:
What has the biggest impact on successful tenant procurement in your experience? Location, design, support model… or something else entirely?
