Apartment EV Charging in Australia: What's Actually Changed in 2026
Quick Facts: Apartment EV Charging, What's New Since May
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If you read our May guide on apartment EV charging and came away thinking "this is moving but it's still messy," you were right.
The four months since that article have been the most active period for strata EV legislation in Australian history.
NSW's Right to Charge bill has now passed the lower house. The federal government has put $1.5 million directly into apartment charging infrastructure.
Victoria's owners corporation rules have been sharpened further.
And Queensland, which we described as lagging in May, has updated its body corporate framework with a required response timeframe for the first time.
Here's what's new, what's changed in your state, and what it means for your next move.
NSW: the law that's one vote away
In May, we reported that the NSW Right to Charge Bill was before the Legislative Assembly. It has now passed that chamber and is before the Legislative Council, the upper house. If it passes, and the current parliamentary mood strongly suggests it will, apartment owners in NSW will have a codified legal right to install an EV charger in their car space.
The mechanics: you serve written notice on your strata committee.
They have three months to respond.
If they don't respond, the installation is deemed approved, no further process required. If they object, the objection must be in writing with substantiated, reasonable grounds.
A vague concern about "setting a precedent" or "fire risk" without supporting evidence won't hold up.
Additionally, strata by-laws that blanket-ban EV charger installations will have no legal force or effect under the new law.
Committees can still say no, but only for a real, documented reason.
What this means right now, while the bill is still before the upper house: the trajectory is clear, and strata committees that were previously stonewalling have generally become more cooperative in anticipation of the law changing. If you're an NSW apartment owner with a pending application, it's worth resubmitting or following up.
Federal government: money into the buildings
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), through its Driving the Nation Program, has committed $1.5 million to install 2,000 charging plugs across at least 16 apartment buildings nationally.
The first completed project, 241 charge points across a Melbourne apartment complex installed by NOX Energy, confirmed the technical model that's now being replicated: a shared infrastructure backbone installed by the body corporate, with individual metered connections for each EV owner so there's no argument about who pays for whose electricity.
This is significant not just as a funding signal but as a proof of concept.
A building with 241 individual charge points didn't require a catastrophic switchboard upgrade, it used Dynamic Load Management software to distribute available capacity intelligently across all connected vehicles, charging more slowly when demand is high and faster when the building load is lighter.
Victoria: the strongest framework in the country
Victoria remains the gold standard for apartment EV rights in Australia. Owners corporations are now legally prohibited from unreasonably refusing an EV charger request from a lot owner, and all new apartment builds since May 2024 must be "EV-ready" under the National
Construction Code. If your building was constructed after that date, your switchboard should already have capacity earmarked for EV infrastructure.
For older Victorian buildings, the 2025 guidelines streamlined the exclusive use by-law process, allowing individual owners to fund and install their own charger and wiring without a full owners corporation vote.
A resolution by the OC committee, rather than a general meeting of all owners, is sufficient.
Queensland: finally moving
Queensland was the laggard in May and it's still the most conservative jurisdiction, but the framework has shifted.
Under updates to the Body Corporate and Community Management Act, body corporates in Queensland must now consider EV charger requests within a set timeframe rather than deferring indefinitely.
If a request is refused, the grounds must be documented. The tribunal path (QCAT) for challenging an unreasonable refusal remains, and has become more actively used since May.
There's no "deemed approval" mechanism in Queensland yet, that's still the meaningful gap between Queensland and NSW.
But the days of a Brisbane committee simply ignoring an application are functionally over.
The technical fix that makes everything easier
One reason strata committees historically said no to EV chargers was a real, legitimate concern: they didn't know if the building's electrical supply could handle it.
That concern is now well-addressed.
Dynamic Load Management systems, software that monitors the building's total electrical load in real time and distributes charging capacity proportionally across connected EVs, mean the answer in almost every assessed building is yes, the supply can handle it, provided charging is managed rather than uncontrolled.
The practical implication: a body corporate that cites "insufficient electrical capacity" as its reason for refusal in 2026 should be asked for the engineering assessment that supports that conclusion. In most cases, no such assessment exists, it's a precautionary refusal, not a technical finding.
State-by-State Apartment EV Charging: September 2026
State | Can committee say no? | Key mechanism | Change since May |
NSW | Yes, but only with documented reasonable grounds | Right to Charge Bill (before upper house); deemed approval after 3 months' silence | Major, bill passed lower house |
VIC | No, cannot unreasonably refuse | Owners corp rules; NCC EV-ready mandate for new builds | Stronger enforcement clarity |
QLD | Yes, but must respond within set timeframe | BCCM Act updated; QCAT tribunal path | Now requires response timeframe |
SA | Yes, evolving | NCC EV-ready for new builds | Incremental progress |
WA | Yes, evolving | Framework development ongoing | Incremental progress |
Do This, Don't Do That
Do this now if your building has been slow: reapply, preferably with a formal written request, a licensed electrician's quote attached, and a reference to your state's current legislative framework. Committees respond better to prepared applications than to verbal enquiries, and a paper trail matters if you end up at a tribunal.
Don't accept a verbal or informal "no." In every state covered here, a documented, reasonable refusal is now the legal minimum a committee owes you, not a courtesy.
The direction of travel in every state is unambiguous: apartment committees will have diminishing legal cover for blanket refusals over the next 12 to 18 months.
FAQs
Has the NSW Right to Charge law passed yet? As of late September 2026, the bill has passed the NSW Legislative Assembly (lower house) and is before the NSW Legislative Council. It has not yet received royal assent. However, the legal trajectory is clear, and many strata committees have already adjusted their approach in anticipation.
What is "Dynamic Load Management" and why does it matter for apartments? Dynamic Load Management is software that monitors a building's total electrical load and distributes available charging capacity across multiple EVs simultaneously, preventing any single vehicle from drawing more than the building's supply can support. It removes the legitimate technical concern about electrical capacity that committees have historically cited as a reason to refuse EV charger installations.
Can my body corporate in Queensland still say no? Yes, but it must now respond within a set timeframe and document its grounds for refusal. A blanket refusal without reasoning is increasingly difficult to sustain, and QCAT challenges on unreasonable refusals have become more common since mid-2026.
What's the ARENA strata funding and does my building qualify? ARENA has committed $1.5 million through the Driving the Nation Program to fund 2,000 charging plugs across at least 16 apartment buildings. The program is administered through approved installers. Check the Driving the Nation Program page on arena.gov.au for current eligibility and application details.
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