The second edition of the National Community Housing Standards Manual sets out standards of good practice in service delivery in the community housing sector throughout Australia. The standards attempt to cover all the elements that constitute high quality housing service for tenants in community housing.

The Standards are divided into seven sections, each devoted to a key area of service provision. Each section contains:

Under each standard, there are a number of signposts that are intended to give organisations some guidance about how to achieve the standard, without being exhaustive or prescriptive. They are not meant to be a checklist for accreditation. Organisations might do some of these things, but might also be doing a range of different things that equally demonstrate that they meet the standard.

The list of signposts for each standard is grouped under three different sub-headings:

These sit opposite the signposts. They are designed to assist organisations in understanding what good practice might involve. Where there is legislation covering a signpost, this is usually mentioned in the further explanation column.

The standards aim to cover the wide range of organisations providing community housing. Most of the standards apply to all organisations irrespective of size, location or type. Where the standard or related signpost do not apply to tenant-run co-operatives, this has been specifically noted.