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Longer tenure for shacks on Crown land

Applications for longer tenure for shacks on Crown land have now closed. For details about national park shacks visit the 'Longer tenure for shacks in national parks' webpage.

In 2020, lessees of shacks on Crown land (i.e. on a Section 78B lease) on a life-tenure or a fixed-term tenure lease for ‘Holiday Accommodation’ purposes, where this is no existing arrangement for longer tenure or relocation, were invited to apply for longer tenure for your shack site.

If an application is successful, ‘longer tenure’ would be granted in the form of either:

an option to purchase the site at the end of an initial 5-year term (if the conditions of the initial lease are met)
a new long-term lease for a maximum of 50 years including an initial 5-year term (if the conditions of the initial lease are met).

If the conditions of the lease are not met within 5 years, the lease will expire and longer tenure (in the form of a long-term lease or the option to purchase) will not be granted.

The application process closed on 30 June 2021 and DEW is currently working through the assessment process for each application.

Guidelines

Detailed information to help applicants understand the application and assessment process and the requirements that need to be met are provided in the Retaining Shacks Guidelines (PDF 1MB)

Have questions? Before contacting us, you might want to look through our Frequently Asked Questions.

The assessment process

The assessment process for longer tenure for a shack on Crown land is as follows:

Step	Process	Approximate Timeframes
1	Lessee/s complete and submit an application online	Applications opened in July 2020 and closed on 30 June 2021
2	Suitability assessment is undertaken by DEW	10 to 14 weeks*
3	Applicant is advised of the outcome of their application	1 to 2weeks
4	Applicant accepts or rejects the ‘Offer to Lease’	12 weeks
5	Conveyancing process is actioned to; Formally surrender the existing lease Issue 5 year lease	8 to12 weeks**
6	Lessee meets terms and conditions of their lease and provides evidence to DEW	Up to 5 years
7	Conveyancing process is actioned for long term tenure	12 to 16 weeks

*The time to assess the application could be highly variable and dependent on the complexity, degree of consultation required and the number of lease applications being assessed. Land Services SA timeframes for processing and registering documents can be variable and time must also be allowed for the creation and processing of application documents.

** The time taken is an estimate only and assumes there are no complications on the lessee’s behalf with executing the documents.

Important notes:

Land Services SA timeframes for lodging documents can be variable and time must be allowed for the creation and processing of documents to remove tenure then add new tenure, which takes a minimum of three months.
Submitting an application form and paying the non-refundable application fee does not guarantee that longer tenure will be granted.
Applicants can withdraw their application at any point of the application process, prior to the surrender of their current lease and continue with their current arrangements.