Guardian Living Australia takes home Community Accommodation Award at the 2026 Master Builders Brisbane Housing & Construction Awards

We’re proud to share that Bellara Community Residences, our Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) development on Bribie Island, has won the Community Accommodation Award at the 2026 Master Builders Brisbane Housing & Construction Awards. The award was presented at a sold-out Master Builders Queensland ceremony at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on Friday 24 July, marking 40 years of the Housing & Construction Awards celebrating the best of Queensland’s building industry. 

It’s wonderful recognition. But at Guardian Living Australia, we measure a project like Bellara by a different yardstick: not how it looks in an awards program, but what it’s made possible for the people living there. 

Starting with the people, not the plans 

Every SDA project we take on starts the same way — by listening. Bellara was no different. 

“From the beginning, this project was shaped by the people it was designed to support,” said Richard Martin, Director, Guardian Living Australia. “We worked closely with participants, families and local stakeholders to understand the community’s needs and make sure the homes were genuinely fit for purpose. That participant-led approach is something we’re incredibly proud of.” 

That meant going into Bellara with an open brief rather than a fixed template, understanding who would actually live there, what their days looked like, and what independence meant for them, before a single wall went up. 

What it’s meant for James 

For one of our tenants, James* (name withheld for privacy), the difference a purpose-built home can make has been life-changing. 

“For one of our tenants, James and his family, finding suitable housing had been an incredibly difficult journey,” Richard said. “They had spent years navigating housing that simply wasn’t meeting his needs, while trying to maintain the local connections and support network that were so important to him. This home has given James something that had been incredibly difficult to find — a purpose-built home where he can live with greater comfort, independence and security, while staying connected to the people and community around him.” 

Conversations like the one our team had with James’ family are exactly why we do this work. 

“Hearing directly from Jame’s family about their experience was incredibly powerful for our team,” Richard said. “They shared what the housing journey had been like for them, what they needed from a home, and what a difference the right home could make.”  

Designed around the individual, not a spec sheet 

Bellara comprises one two-bedroom High Physical Support (HPS) home and two one-bedroom Robust villas, all exceeding NDIS SDA Design Standard requirements, but numbers only tell part of the story. What sets the site apart is how much of it was shaped around the specific people who’d be living there, from widened doorways and customised accessible ensuites built around individual mobility and assistive technology needs, to a fully separated Onsite Overnight Assistance (OOA) facility supporting 24/7 care. 

“Every participant is different, which is why a one-size-fits-all approach to SDA doesn’t work,” Richard said. “This home includes a range of customised features developed around individual needs and preferences. It’s a great example of what can be achieved when you listen to the person who will actually call the property home and design around their life, rather than simply designing a house around a set of specifications.” 

It’s an approach we’re able to take because of the way we build. Delivering HPS and Robust homes through a modular, factory-controlled process gives us tighter quality control and a repeatable, NDIS-compliant standard, while reducing disruption for residents and neighbours during construction and shortening the path from approval to move-in for people waiting on the right home.  

On Bellara, that meant delivering two distinct SDA typologies on a single site — a High Physical Support home and Robust villas — without the compliance and safety requirements of either coming at the cost of the warmth and privacy a resident should expect from a home, not a facility. 

 None of it would have been possible without our build partner, Saltair, whose team delivered on that brief with real precision — work that was documented for Channel 9’s Epic Builds, following the project from first fix through to handover.  

Watch the build on Epic Builds, Season 1, Episode 7 here.

Why this award matters to us 

“Winning this award is a wonderful recognition of the quality of the home, but for us at Guardian Living Australia, the real measure of success is the difference it makes to the person living there,” Richard said. “This project demonstrates what’s possible when SDA is designed around the individual, bringing together thoughtful design, quality construction thanks to Saltair and genuine participant input to create a home that supports independence, comfort and connection.” 

Learn more about our current vacancies at Bellara.