WacandJill

Just a general question about the Australian planning departments attitude to new house builds of a contemporary nature.
I know that here in Wales,UK, anything that deviates from the norm is usually frowned on. Have they got a more laid back, accepting attitude over in OZ?
Is it the same procedure as in the UK - ie you buy a plot of land with outline planning permission, then the buyer gets detailed planning permission, then instructs builders of his choice to build the property?
Anyone know anything about planning laws in Aus?
Many thanks

WacandJill

Hello

wargod

Hello back

Tiawamutu

Hello too

Tiawamutu

From my experience of watching real estate programmes about houses in Australia, I have got the impression that they are very laid back when it comes to house designs.

If you have Sky TV, try watching channel 250 Real Estate TV. There are loads of programmes about Australian homes on there every day. Especially look out for 'Location Locations Amazing Homes', and you'll soon get your eyes opened

For anyone who's interested there's one on tonight at 7.30pm

NIGENABBY

Hello

Firstly, this is all in my experience;

There are not really any national rules on building a house in Aus. It is totally state and council based. It can depend totally on what sort of area you are in. EG, in Fitzroy (Victoria) there is a general heritage overlay. This means that basically anything that alters the look of the outside of the building will come under VERY close scrutiny. This can include (depending on the area) what colour you paint the outside. (I lived there for some years and we had basically a list of colours we could paint)

There are some general rules (distance from street, boundaries etc) however these can be overridden depending on what was there previously. My parents old place they could build to the boundaries because the house they previously demolished was built to the boundary.

You may also find that there are caveats put in place by the sellers of the land. Eg, we are looking at an estate in Berwick and there are specific caveats about the types of homes that can be build on the estate (in Aus it is not just one builder per estate so they do not look uniform the way they do here).

I know this is not really answering your question, however the short answer is you will need to contact the planning department of the council where you intend to build.

Good luck on your choices

pako

PM me tomorrow when I am at work. I'm a British planner, I'll ask one of the aussies in the office. Which state are you moving to

WacandJill

Thanks for replies.
Just caught the tail end of the programme you mentioned, will make sure we watch it in the future.
Will have to check with planners when we eventually get out there - husband has been watching too many "grand designs" I think.