Whether you’re new to the property market or have been looking to purchase a home in Queensland for quite some time, you might have heard real estate agents mention that some homes come with a ‘’utility room’’ or ‘’rumpus room’’. These refer to the built-in downstairs area present in certain Queensland houses. While it might sound appealing to have an extra room, especially when thinking about selling your property in a few years, you still need to exercise some caution when it comes to a built-in downstairs. Some of these rooms are not ceiling-compliant, meaning they’re not deemed habitable and cannot be advertised as a bedroom or living area.

In this post, we’ll detail the legal ceiling height in Queensland and go through a few key things you should keep in mind when visiting such a house.

A habitable room is a room used for normal domestic activities. It includes the bedrooms, the dining room, the lounge room, and the living room. However, it doesn’t include the bathroom, toilets or walk-in pantry. According to the National Construction Code, Volume 2, part 3.8.2, the minimum ceiling height relating to a habitable room in QLD is 2.4m.
For non-habitable rooms such as the laundry room, hallway, and corridors, the ceiling height must be a minimum of 2.m. Note that the kitchen is considered a habitable room but falls under the non-habitable 2.1m rule.
If the property has two floors and has staircases, the ceiling height must be a minimum of 2m from the bottom of the stairs to the next level.
A property’s attic with a sloping roof can be used as a bedroom if at least 66% of the floor area has a ceiling height of 2.2m. However, any floor area with a ceiling height of 1.5m and under will have to be excluded from the floor area calculation.
The measurements are from the finished floor to the lowest part of the ceiling, including any protrusion.
If a room doesn’t meet this legal ceiling height requirement, it is not deemed habitable and is therefore called a utility room.
Any alterations must be approved and certified to be compliant. Therefore, if there have been alterations done to the downstairs area ceilings, you’ll need to ensure that they have been approved and certified, thus making sure the room is deemed habitable.

As mentioned above, the appealing ‘’bonus room’’ could quickly turn out to be a forgotten storage room if the ceiling height is not compliant. Therefore, as always, if you’re in doubt or have any questions regarding built-in downstairs and ceiling height, we’d recommend that you talk to an expert beforehand so you can make an informed decision. It might save you a lot of hassle and headaches.