NCC Handrail Requirements: Height, Where They Are Required, Extensions and Landings (2025 Guide)

The handrail question comes up on every stair, and the answer is shorter than most people expect: one rail, on one side, with its top at least 865 mm above the line of the nosings. Everything else in this guide is about when that rule does not apply, when a second rail is needed, and what changes on an accessible stair. The figures are from NCC 2025 and AS 1428.1:2021, checked against the published text; the checker in section 3 draws them for the stair you describe.

1. The rule in one paragraph

A stairway or ramp needs a handrail along at least one side, running the full length of the flight, with the top surface of the rail not less than 865 mm measured vertically above the nosings of the treads or the surface of the ramp, and nothing on or above the rail that would break a handhold. That is Housing Provisions 11.3.5 for a house and Volume One D3D22 for everything else, and the two say the same thing. The NCC sets no maximum height for a house or an ordinary commercial stair. A maximum arrives only when the stair has to comply with AS 1428.1, which caps the rail at 1000 mm.

2. When a house stair does not need a handrail

Housing Provisions 11.3.5(2) lists the reliefs, and they matter because most of the arguments on site are about them.

• A change in level under 1 m. A stair or ramp whose total rise is less than 1 m needs no handrail. Three or four steps down to a garage or a sunken lounge are exempt. Once the rise reaches 1 m the rail is required for the whole flight, not only the part above 1 m.

• A landing. The handrail requirement attaches to the flight. It does not have to continue across a landing, though a barrier still does where the landing is more than 1 m above the surface beneath.

• A winder with a newel post. Where a flight turns on winders and a newel post is installed to grip, the post stands in for the rail on that part of the stair.

• An AS 1657 stair. A service stair to a plant platform built to AS 1657 under 11.2.7(a) carries that standard's rail instead.

A stair inside an apartment gets the same reliefs from Volume One D3D22(6), and the rail may stop where a barrier stops, which is what lets a curved or spiral stair finish a couple of treads short of the floor.

3. Check your stair

Choose the kind of stair, set its total rise and width, and the section redraws with the rail the NCC requires. The figures below the drawing are the ones a certifier will look for.

4. How the height is measured

The 865 mm is measured vertically, from the line that joins the nosings of the treads, to the top surface of the rail. It is not measured from the middle of a tread and not from the underside of the rail. On a ramp or a landing it is measured from the floor surface. Because the nosing line is parallel to the rail, a rail set at 865 mm above the nosings is 865 mm above every nosing along the flight. On site the quickest check is a spirit level held vertically on a nosing up to the top of the rail. The Housing Provisions draw it in Figure 11.3.4b, which also shows the transition zone where a rail or barrier steps up from 865 mm on the flight to 1 m at a landing.

5. Commercial buildings: one side, or two

Volume One D3D22(1) starts with the same 865 mm and the same continuity rule, then adds a width test: once the total width of the stairway or ramp is 2 m or more, a handrail is needed along each side. The rail must be continuous between landings, so a rail that stops at a landing and picks up again on the next flight is acceptable, but a gap mid-flight is not. A step ramp, threshold ramp or kerb ramp needs no handrail, and a fixed platform or ladder to AS 1657 is covered by D3D23 instead.

Two building types carry a second, lower rail. A primary school stair has one rail at 865 mm and another between 665 and 750 mm. A stair in an early childhood centre has one at 865 mm and a small-hand rail between 450 and 700 mm, with a cross-section of 16 to 45 mm measured in any direction. In a Class 9a health-care building, corridors used by patients need a rail on at least one side, 50 mm clear of the wall and continuous where practicable; a Class 9c aged care building needs them on both sides of every resident corridor.

6. Accessible stairs: what AS 1428.1 adds

Where a stair forms part of an accessway or a required exit serving an area that has to be accessible, D3D22(1)(f) and D4D4 bring in clause 9 of AS 1428.1:2021. The standard tightens almost every dimension.

• Both sides. Clause 8.2 requires a rail on each side of the stair regardless of width.

• 865 to 1000 mm. The top of the rail sits between 865 and 1000 mm above the nosing or the finished floor, and the height stays consistent along the flight and across its landings, apart from a 10 mm construction tolerance and the places where a rail transitions between flights or to a balustrade.

• A grip you can close a hand around. Circular or elliptical, 30 to 52 mm across, with at least 270 degrees of the top surface free for the hand; edges rounded to a 5 mm radius or more.

• Clear of the wall. At least 50 mm between the rail and the wall or any other obstruction, and that clearance continues 600 mm above the top of the rail.

• Extensions. At the top, 300 mm horizontally past the nosing of the top riser. At the bottom, one tread depth on the slope of the nosings plus 300 mm horizontally from the last riser. Where a continuous rail turns at an intermediate landing, the inner rail needs no extension there, but it must be continuous.

• Ends. Turned through 180 degrees, taken to the ground, or returned fully to the post or the wall, so a sleeve or a bag cannot catch.

• No vertical sections. The rail follows the angle of the nosings; where a balustrade is required higher than the rail, both are provided.

7. Handrails and barriers are not the same thing

A handrail is for holding. A barrier is for not falling, and it is required wherever the drop from a stair, landing, balcony or deck is 1 m or more. On a flight the barrier can be as low as 865 mm above the nosings, the same as the rail, which is why on many house stairs the top of the balustrade doubles as the handrail. At the landing the barrier rises to 1 m, and both the Housing Provisions and Volume One allow a transition zone where the height steps up. The two functions come apart when a barrier is higher than a hand can comfortably reach, which is common with a 1 m glass balustrade on a flight, or when a wall-mounted rail runs along a stair that has a wall on that side and needs no barrier at all. The openings, climbability and wire rules for barriers are in our balustrade guide.

8. Landings

A landing must be at least 750 mm long, measured 500 mm from the inside edge where the stair changes direction, and its gradient must not exceed 1:50. In a house, a landing is also required where a doorway opens onto a stair or ramp with a change in level of more than three risers or 570 mm, and it must extend across the full width of the doorway. A stair serving only an attic or a storeroom that is not in daily use may have a 600 mm landing. The handrail does not have to continue across a landing, but a continuous rail is the better detail on any stair used by the public, and it is required on an accessible stair. Provisions: Housing Provisions 11.2.5; Volume One D3D15.

9. Does NCC 2025 change anything?

No. NCC 2025 came into effect on 1 May 2026 in most states and territories, while New South Wales and Queensland have deferred adoption and remain on NCC 2022. For handrails it makes no practical difference: D3D22, Housing Provisions 11.3.5 and the 865 mm, 2 m and 1 m figures are the same in NCC 2022 Amendment 2 and NCC 2025, and AS 1428.1:2021 is the referenced edition in both. A stair detailed to last year's code complies this year. The earlier clause numbers, for anyone reading an older drawing, are D2.17 in Volume One and 3.9.2.4 in Volume Two of NCC 2019.

Check the rest of the stair

Riser, going and the 2R + G relationship are in our stair requirements guide, and the free NCC stair calculator tests a flight against the right table with the clause beside the verdict. No account is needed. For a question the checker above does not cover, such as a rail on a curved stair or a Performance Solution for an existing building, ask AEC Assistant and it answers from the Code with the clause cited.

Sources: ABCB Housing Provisions 2025 clauses 11.2.5, 11.3.3, 11.3.4 and 11.3.5 and Figure 11.3.4b; NCC 2025 Volume One D3D15, D3D17, D3D18, D3D22 and D3D23; AS 1428.1:2021 clauses 8.2 and 9. Figures verified against the ABCB's published text on 10 September 2026. This article is general guidance; the building surveyor or certifier for your project determines compliance.