Sydney’s Opal Tower has been declared defect-free after an eight-year saga that reshaped building standards in New South Wales. The 36-storey apartment complex, which was evacuated on Christmas Eve 2018 due to cracking concrete, was officially certified safe this week, marking the end of a process that included $50 million in repairs, a class-action lawsuit, and two legal battles.
The repairs, completed by builder Icon and its parent company Kajima, addressed major structural flaws in precast concrete walls and floors, particularly around the façade’s “garden slots,” where panels met structural columns. Work began in 2019 with critical concrete repairs, while minor fixes, such as repainting planter boxes, were finished last year. The building now carries a 20-year structural warranty, an extension from the standard six-year guarantee that Kajima agreed to in 2019.
Its turnaround earned it the Champion Award at the 2026 NSW Apartment Awards for Excellence, recognizing both the physical repairs and the community’s resilience. Shady Eskander, chair of the Opal Tower Owners Corporation, called it “the greatest property comeback story in Australian history,” highlighting how the building’s restoration rebuilt trust and pride among residents.
A 2019 report by three senior engineers, commissioned by the NSW government, identified the root causes of the defects: under-designed hob beams, lower-strength concrete, and poor grouting. These findings led to sweeping reforms, including the creation of the NSW Building Commissioner role and the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020.
The new laws require designers to certify compliance with the Building Code of Australia and mandate that builders and developers verify their work matches approved plans. The state also passed the Residential Apartment Buildings Act 2020, granting the commissioner authority to halt construction, demand corrections, and block occupancy if defects are found.
The evacuation of Opal Tower in Sydney’s Olympic Park triggered broader policy shifts, forcing a reckoning on construction standards. The building, developed by Ecove and completed in August 2018, sits on land owned by the Sydney Olympic Park Authority, which partnered with the state government as a co-developer. He said the wider lesson was that “quality needs to be there so that defects aren’t.”