Pattern Book Small Lot Apartments 01: plans, lot sizes and apartment yield

This pattern is for a mid block lot with one primary street frontage. The official documents say it cannot be used on a corner lot, and battle axe lots are excluded. The smallest lot it is drawn on is 13 metres wide and 40 metres deep, which is 520 square metres, and the largest drawn condition is 16.6 by 54.5 metres, or 904.7 square metres.

Lot width decides both the side setbacks and the height. A zero metre side setback version is drawn for lots 13 to 16 metres wide, and it only applies where a nil setback is permissible. Where it is not, the pattern needs a continuous side setback: 1.5 metres for 3 storeys on lots from 13.6 metres wide, and 3 metres for 4 storeys on lots from 16.6 metres wide. Lot width is measured at the front of the building line.

Each of the ten official lot conditions is shown below with its own dimensions and setbacks. The number of apartments on each card is the yield drawn with the preferred basement parking arrangement. Swapping to on grade parking or no parking changes both the mix and the total, which is why the published range starts at 7 rather than 10.

Type your address to load your actual block from the NSW cadastre, including its boundaries, zoning and planning layers. Dudils screens lot size and orientation to find patterns that could work. It screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative only, and it does not confirm hazards, easements, sewer or full planning eligibility, so check the fall across your site against the 1 metre limit above and check council and State mapping for flood and bush fire prone land. Even the lowest bush fire rating of BAL 12.5 is not compliant. Heritage items and conservation areas, landslip risk land, registered easements, coastal hazard land, foreshore land, unsewered land and battle axe lots do not comply either.

The mid rise patterns only apply in the areas the NSW Government has opened up for more homes: low and mid rise (LMR) housing areas under section 163 of the Housing SEPP, and transport oriented development (TOD) housing areas under Chapter 5 of the same policy, where a residential flat building is permitted with consent. You can look these areas up on the NSW Planning Portal map, or type your address above and the lot finder checks them for you.

The pattern pathway does not apply on land the policy identifies as unsuitable. That includes bush fire prone land, certain high risk flood prone land, State heritage items, local heritage items and heritage conservation areas. The full list of exclusions sits in Chapter 7 of the Housing SEPP.

Where the pattern applies, its development standards and location requirements prevail over inconsistent controls in another environmental planning instrument or a development control plan, so the lot size, height and setback numbers on this page hold even where a council plan says otherwise.

The base pattern is a 4 storey building on a 16.6 by 40 metre lot with 3 metre side setbacks. It holds 13 apartments: 3 studios, 8 one bedroom homes and 2 two bedroom homes, with 3 to 4 dwellings per floor around one lift and one central stair. The ground floor has 2 studios and a one bedroom home, the first and second floors each have two one bedroom homes and a two bedroom home, and the third floor has a studio and three one bedroom homes.

Parking sits in the basement in the preferred arrangement: 4 car spaces including 1 accessible space, 2 electric vehicle charging stations, 13 bicycle stands, the fire pump room, switch room, comms plant room and storage. An on grade version moves the same 4 spaces to the rear of the ground floor, which removes the ground floor apartments and drops the yield.

Above that, the roof is a communal garden with an outdoor gym, shaded benches, a vegetable garden with dining tables, a playground under a pergola and an outdoor kitchen. An alternative roof plan replaces the garden with a simple service roof and a large photovoltaic array. Communal open space is 28 per cent of the site area across the ground floor courtyard and the roof.

All nine official plans are below, including both parking arrangements at basement and ground level and both roof options.

The pattern book summary gives one floor area for each apartment type. The individual adaptation sheets label smaller internal areas because the plan is trimmed as the lot narrows, so both are listed below. Habitable rooms have 2.7 metre ceilings, every home has a full width balcony or a courtyard, and many include a flexible room that works as a study.

The base pattern only builds studios, one bedroom and two bedroom homes. Three and four bedroom apartments appear on the longer 49.5 and 54.5 metre lots, where the extra depth allows a larger unit at each end of the floor plate.

The pattern is a kit with strict rules rather than one fixed building. What you can change: the lot width from 13 to 16.6 metres, the lot length from 40 to 54.5 metres, 3 or 4 storeys, basement, on grade or no parking, a curved or a rectilinear front facade, three brick palettes, and the roof as a communal garden or a simple service roof. Hooded windows and top floor skylights are flexible too, and the skylights may be left out where solar compliance is already achieved.

What stays fixed: the lift and stair core, the front facade in brick, the position of every room, the entries into the building and each apartment, and the bathroom dimensions and clearances. Fixtures and finishes are yours to choose provided clearances are not reduced. Every change, even a flexible one, must be declared in the design verification statement lodged with the application.

Orientation is handled by mirroring rather than redesign. A south facing frontage is the base pattern and an east facing frontage uses it unchanged. A west facing frontage mirrors the plan horizontally. A north facing frontage mirrors it vertically, which puts the entry at the rear, so a north facing lot only works with rear lane access or with no parking at all.

Slope is the tight constraint. The basement and ground floor can absorb a maximum crossfall of 1 metre, inclining or declining to the rear, in both the basement and the on grade arrangements. Anything steeper is outside the pattern.

Three brick palettes are offered, each with a curved or a rectilinear front facade. Blonde brick is suggested for coastal areas, light brown brick for new build areas and dark brown brick for heritage areas. In every palette the front facade and the communal garden edge are brick, the side elevation is lightweight fibre cement for thermal efficiency and cost, and metal balustrades, screens, awnings and window frames are finished in tones that match the brick.

The technical drawings group the same three palettes as light, mid and dark, and show each in a coastal character and a heritage character. Substitutions still have to hold the intended colour, profile and finish relationships in the technical package.

Dudils screens lot size and orientation to identify patterns that could work. It does not complete a planning eligibility assessment. Before buying a site, taking an option on it or buying the pattern licence, check the current State and council mapping and get professional advice.

The pattern does not comply on bush fire prone land, even at the lowest rating of BAL 12.5, or on excluded flood prone land. Heritage items and heritage conservation areas, landslip risk land, registered easements that cross the proposed building area, coastal hazard land, foreshore land, unsewered land and battle axe lots also need to be ruled out. Corner lots are excluded from this pattern as well, because it is drawn for a single street frontage.

Slope is the constraint people miss. The maximum crossfall this pattern absorbs is 1 metre, and Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey, so order survey contours early. On a narrow lot the zero metre side setback version only works where a nil setback is permissible in the first place, and it needs a blank wall on that boundary.

Two more site facts change the scheme. The design assumes weekly kerbside waste collection with bins wheeled out by building management, so confirm your council will collect that way. And a lot to the north of existing houses can overshadow neighbours to the south, which the application has to evidence with shadow diagrams and which can reduce the storeys you can build.

We recommend asking Good Architect to undertake a site feasibility study before buying the land, taking an option or buying the licence. The study can test the planning constraints, model the shadows and draw the proposed envelope before you commit.

These are the numeric controls specific to this pattern. They sit in Chapter 7 of the Housing SEPP and prevail over inconsistent local controls where the pattern applies. Landscape works also have to follow the NSW Housing Pattern Book Landscape design guide.

Two things to note when you compare the numbers. The development standards table pairs the 1.5 metre setback column with a 664 square metre minimum lot, while the matching adaptation sheet draws a 13.6 by 40 metre lot of 544 square metres. The table also labels the zero setback column as the 3 storey minimum pattern, while the zero setback adaptation sheets draw 4 storeys on lots 13 to 16 metres wide. The pattern documents say that where a discrepancy exists you follow the development standards table, so treat the table as the control, the drawings as the illustration, and settle the storey count with your architect before you commit.

Using the pattern starts with the NSW Government licence. The design data lists it as licence from $15,000 per lot. On 6 August 2026 the official shop listing showed a subsidised price of $1,500 against $15,000 for the first six months, and marked the product sold out. Price and availability change, so check the shop before you plan around either figure.

The licence buys the technical drawings in PDF and DWG formats, technical guidance, the editable design verification statement template and the NSW Housing Pattern Book Landscape design guide, delivered by email with 30 days of access. The pack includes the adaptations for this pattern.

You then engage a design team to adapt the drawings to your site. The design verification statement must be completed by an architect registered by the NSW Architects Registration Board under the Architects Act 2003, listed on the NSW Register of Architects, who confirms every fixed and adapted feature of the pattern is carried into the application.

The application is lodged as a development application under Chapter 7 of the Housing SEPP. Reduced assessment removes the slow parts of a normal apartment application because the design questions are already answered: no reassessment against the Apartment Design Guide or the Schedule 9 design quality principles. You still have to demonstrate BASIX and NatHERS compliance like any other residential development.

Keep in mind the pattern drawings are an indicative design for planning approval, not construction drawings. The patterns are capable of complying with the National Construction Code subject to final technical detail, and a Class 2 building still needs full documentation, engineers and a practitioner registered under the Design and Building Practitioners Act. Start with a Good Architect site feasibility study before committing to the land, the licence or the application.