Aged Care Construction Guide: Planning, Building and Delivering Aged Care in Sydney and Melbourne

Aged care construction is one of the most demanding building types in Australia. A new home has to be safe, compliant and efficient to operate, and it has to feel like a home to the people who live there.

At Infinity Constructions, we have delivered aged care and seniors living projects across Sydney, Melbourne and regional Victoria, from the 177-bed Infin8 Knoxfield home to the two-stage Mayflower redevelopment and the award-winning Parkside at IRT in Wollongong.

We have written this guide for aged care operators, healthcare property investors and project managers planning a new home, an expansion or a redevelopment. It answers the questions we are asked most often: how long it takes, how to rebuild while residents stay, and what the Aged Care Act 2024 and the Class 9c building rules mean for your project.

Vertical aged care is a residential aged care home built over several storeys rather than spread across one or two levels. It suits metropolitan sites where land is expensive, but it needs careful planning of evacuation, lifts and outdoor access.

We lead the industry in vertical aged care, and in our experience the details that matter most are:

• Horizontal evacuation. Residents are moved across smoke and fire compartments on the same floor before anyone uses the stairs, so the compartment layout and door hardware must support this from the first plans.
• Lifts. Bed-capable lifts, backup capacity when a lift is out of service, and separate routes for meals, linen and waste keep a vertical home running smoothly.
• A household on every floor. The National Aged Care Design Principles recommend households of no more than 15 residents, which usually means one or two households per floor.
• Outdoor space above ground. Balconies, terraces and rooftop gardens replace ground-floor courtyards, and need early design for safety, shade and drainage.

Infin8 Knoxfield includes rooftop spaces overlooking the neighbouring golf course and balconies to premium rooms, alongside a separate building of 15 independent living apartments. In Wollongong, Parkside at IRT delivered 75 seniors living apartments over eight storeys beside IRT's existing aged care home, and won the Aged Care Buildings category at the 2019 MBA NSW Excellence in Construction Awards.

Yes. Most aged care redevelopments are staged so the home can keep operating. New capacity and essential services are built first, residents move into the new building, and the older part is then demolished and rebuilt. The key is keeping the occupied building safe and compliant at every stage.

At Mayflower in Reservoir, we delivered a 110-room, dementia-friendly home in two stages for the Mayflower Group, working with Connect PM and Clarke Hopkins Clarke Architects. Stage 1 delivered 54 beds together with the commercial kitchen, laundry, gym, salon and car park. Stage 2 added 56 beds, the main entrance, three landscaped courtyards and the ambulance bay.

Our approach to staged aged care projects includes:

• Services first. We build the kitchen, laundry, plant and main connections early, so the operating home never relies on infrastructure that is about to be demolished.
• Fire safety at every stage. Exits, sprinklers, detection and smoke compartments in the occupied building stay compliant throughout, with a fire engineer involved from the start.
• A separate, secure site. Construction access is kept apart from residents, visitors, deliveries and ambulances, with hoarding that also controls dust.
• An infection outbreak plan. We agree in advance which areas close and which trades stop if the home has an outbreak.
• Noise managed around care. The noisiest work is scheduled around care routines, with agreed quiet periods for residents living with dementia.
• Planned shutdowns. Every connection to the live building has a method statement, a back-out plan and the operator's sign-off, and is carried out out of hours.
• Clear communication. Regular updates through the operator keep residents, families and staff informed.

In NSW, from 1 July 2026, the Design and Building Practitioners scheme also applies to alteration and renovation work on existing aged care buildings, so staged works now need registered practitioners and declared designs.

The Aged Care Act 2024 started on 1 November 2025, with strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, including a standard for the physical environment. It regulates care rather than construction, but it raises expectations for how a building supports dignity, safety, infection control and dementia care.

The practical design benchmark is the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, introduced in July 2024. They are voluntary, but operators and investors increasingly use them as the standard for new homes. Key recommendations that affect construction include:

• Small households of no more than 15 residents
• A private bedroom and ensuite for every resident
• Corridors shorter than 20 metres
• Quiet bedrooms, with an acoustic target of 35 dB(A)
• Good daylight and artificial lighting, fresh air and comfortable temperatures of 20 to 26°C
• Entry vestibules to each household to help with infection control

Acoustic, ventilation and lighting targets need to be built into the design from the start, because they are costly to add later. Embracia Kyneton, our current project as head contractor, shows the household model in practice: 126 beds over two levels, arranged as four connected household wings around a central hub.

A Class 9c building is a residential aged care building under the National Construction Code (NCC). Class 9c buildings must be sprinklered throughout and divided into smoke compartments of no more than 500 square metres, so residents can be moved to safety on the same floor during a fire.

Independent living apartments on the same campus are usually Class 2, so a combined seniors living and aged care project often has to meet both sets of requirements.

In NSW, new Class 9c buildings have been regulated under the Design and Building Practitioners Act since 3 July 2023. The builder must be a registered building practitioner, and designs must be declared by registered design practitioners and lodged on the NSW Planning Portal before work starts. From 1 July 2026, this also applies to alterations and renovations of existing aged care buildings.

In Victoria, builder registration depends on building height, and taller aged care homes need a builder registered as a Commercial Builder (Unlimited).

Choose a builder with recent, completed Class 9c projects of a similar size, experience delivering on occupied sites, and the design management capability to coordinate complex fire, mechanical and nurse call systems. Visit their completed homes and speak to the operators.

We recognise that aged care projects require more than construction expertise, and some builders now avoid the sector because of its complexity. Alongside the general checks in our guide to choosing a Tier 2 builder, we suggest asking:

1. Which aged care homes have you completed in the last five years, and can we visit one and speak to the operator?
2. Have you delivered a staged project with residents in place, and how did you keep the home safe and compliant?
3. Who will coordinate the fire, mechanical, nurse call, kitchen and laundry design?
4. How will commissioning and handover fit with our staff training and opening programme?
5. What prefabrication do you recommend, and how much time does it save?
6. How will you work with our project manager, fire engineer and certifier during early contractor involvement?

Whether you are testing a site, a bed number or a staging plan, early advice from an experienced builder can save months later. Our team can give you an early view on buildability, programme and staging before you commit to a design or contract model.

Learn more about our early contractor involvement service, or contact us today to discuss your project. Sydney: (02) 9332 4722. Melbourne: (03) 9676 0700.