Architect-designed second dwellings, and most lots over 300m² no longer need a planning permit.
What the rules cannot do is design the thing. On a suburban block, a second dwelling lives or dies on siting, privacy, light and how two households share one piece of land, which is where an architect earns the fee.
The hard version, delivered: our Lofts project in Coburg added a self-contained studio to a heritage-context site under strict setback controls, approved in eight months and delivered in 2017. If a second dwelling can be won on a protected site with the council watching closely, the ordinary suburban version holds few fears.
The most common granny-flat brief is also the most personal: a parent moving closer, on their own terms. This is where the practice's background counts twice. BY Projects has designed for the aged-care sector and for ageing in place, and that knowledge — level thresholds, bathrooms that stay usable as mobility changes, warmth, light and sightlines between the two homes — goes into a flat meant to serve its resident for decades rather than until the first walking frame.
Closeness without dependence is a design outcome, and it is drawable at feasibility.
Find out what your lot allows — rules read, options drawn.
Book a Feasibility SessionYour lot's zone, overlays and the 300-square-metre question answered in one sitting, with a drawn concept you keep.
Then design, building permit and construction, on a fixed fee agreed before design begins.
Where your project outgrows the small-second-dwelling rules — larger studios, dual occupancy — we tell you at feasibility and price the honest pathway instead.
On most residential lots over 300 square metres, no, for a small second dwelling of up to 60 square metres, though your zone or overlays can still require one, and a building permit is always required. We confirm your lot's exact position first.
Designed properly, it is often the best answer available: independence and closeness at once. We draw on our aged-care and ageing-in-place design background, level access, adaptable bathrooms, warmth and light, so the flat serves its resident for decades, not just the first years.
Yes. Victoria's small-second-dwelling rules carry no occupancy restriction: family or a paying tenant are both permitted. It cannot, however, be subdivided or sold separately from the main home.
Up to 60 square metres under the no-permit pathway. Want more? Larger secondary dwellings and dual-occupancy options exist under standard planning pathways, and feasibility tells you which fits your block.
It depends on siting, services and specification more than floor area, which is why we price it per project at feasibility rather than quoting a brochure figure that will not survive your site.
The no-permit pathway exists today, on today's rules; a flat drawn this season can be housing family, or paying rent, within the year.