The humble duplex set to get some new rules

Randwick council is set to update its LEP by the end of the year with the public consultation having just finished in July. Council will then meet over the course of September to review submissions before gazetting in December. These changes will affect several parts of the existing LEP however for the purposes of this article we will just be referring to the impact on Duplex or Dual Occupancy developments.

The new changes to the LEP with respect to Duplex developments will primarily concern changes to lot sizes. The changes can be summarised by saying that unless your R2 zoned site is 550sqm in size you will no longer be able to undertake a duplex or dual occupancy development in the Randwick LGA. While lodging a section 4.6 certificate may still be an option we believe it is unlikely the majority of these will be successful. Currently if you have a site of at least 450sqm you can (subject to addressing councils controls) undertake a duplex development. You just can’t sub-divide it. Under the new controls this will no longer be possible.

The Pros

Lets start with the ‘Pros’ of these changes.

1. Although you will now require a larger parent lot size in order to do a duplex you will now be able to sub-divide the property. Although the changes are yet to be finalised it appears you will now be able to either strata or torrens title sub-divide the sites at completion with minimum resulting lots of 275sqm each. i.e You will be able to sell each side independently of the other.

2. At present in order to sub-divide your site each resultant lot size needs to be 400sqm. This means the site needs to be 800sqm in size before its sub-divided! There are not too many sites of that size in the Randwick LGA.

3. Larger lot sizes will one would assume result in improved amenity to the dwellings. i.e each dwelling will on average be larger.

The Cons

So, there are a couple of downsides to these changes:

1. At present you can sub-divide your site if it is a minimum of 450sqm. You will now only be able to do a duplex or dual occupancy if you have a site with a minimum of 550sqm. If you are looking to undertake a development of this type and your site is not 550sqm its not too late to get it underway now.

2. At present it is possible to do a complying development on a site of 450sqm and strata sub-divide with as little as 180sqm of ground floor area. We recently gained approval for one such project in Maroubra. See image below. Once the updated LEP comes into place it is unlikely this will no longer be an advantage as you will still need a lot size that is larger than 450sqm.

3. While undertaking a duplex or dual occupancy development via a complying development (through the low rise housing divsersity code) will still have its benefits (principally speed and reduced risk) the advantages will be reduced.

Changes to the FSR

In addition to the changes to the lot sizes there is also a proposed change to the floor space ration or FSR. The existing FSR for these R2 sites is 0.5:1. The proposed change will increase that FSR to 0.65:1 to sites that are 550-600sqm. For sites above 600sqm that FSR will reduce to 0.6:1.