Pattern Book Terraces 01: the NSW terrace design explained

There are two base patterns and the one you use depends on where the block is. In a low and mid rise (LMR) housing area the minimum is 15 metres wide and 500 square metres. Anywhere else in NSW where multi dwelling housing is permitted, the minimum is 18 metres wide and 600 square metres, and the block must also meet the minimum lot size in the local environmental plan for this type of development. Lot width is measured at the front building line.

The official siting drawings work to a minimum site length of 33.3 metres in almost every case, and 35.2 metres for the corner block with a rear garage. That length matters as much as the width: the three terraces need a front setback, a 22.3 metre building, and a deep rear garden behind it.

The fourteen cards below are every siting and orientation example the pattern documents publish, seven for LMR housing areas and seven for the rest of NSW. They cover mid block, corner and rear lane sites and show how the parking, driveway crossovers and private gardens move as the street changes side. Each one keeps the official site boundary and its own dimension lines.

Type your address to load your actual block from the NSW cadastre, including its boundaries, zoning and planning layers. Dudils screens lot size, orientation and slope to find patterns that could work. It does not complete a planning eligibility assessment. Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey, so confirm the fall across your site against the limits above. Also check council and State mapping to confirm the land is not bush fire prone or excluded flood prone land. Heritage items and conservation areas, landslip risk land, land affected by a registered easement, coastal hazard land, foreshore land and unsewered land need to be ruled out separately.

This is one of the low rise patterns, so it is not limited to the areas around town centres and stations. There is a base pattern for low and mid rise (LMR) housing areas, which are the well located residential zones within an 800 metre walk of selected town centres and stations, and a second base pattern for every other location in NSW where multi dwelling housing (terraces) is already permitted with consent. You can look the LMR areas up on the NSW Planning Portal map, or type your address above and the lot finder checks them for you.

The pattern book pathway is a complying development pathway, so the usual complying development exclusions apply. Pattern book development is not permitted on bush fire prone land or on certain flood prone land, and it is not permitted on heritage items or in heritage conservation areas. The full exclusion list sits in the Codes SEPP. Where the land is excluded, the same design can still be lodged as an ordinary development application.

Every application must show how it responds to the NSW Housing Pattern Book Landscape Guide, including tree canopy and deep soil, and must demonstrate that neighbouring homes keep reasonable solar access as the Low Rise Housing Diversity Design Guide defines it.

The base pattern is three terraces in a row, 22.3 metres deep, set behind a 4 metre front setback in an LMR housing area or 5.5 metres elsewhere. Each home runs front to back: entry, a garage or flexible front room, a laundry and powder room in the middle, then the courtyard, then an open kitchen, dining and lounge that opens onto the rear garden.

The courtyard is what makes the plan work. It is an open air room in the centre of each terrace that brings daylight and cross ventilation into the stair, the kitchen and the living space, which is the hardest part of a long narrow terrace to light. Skylights over the stair do the same job on the first floor.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms, a family bathroom and a second bathroom, and the front bedroom can be a large principal bedroom with a balcony or be split into a bedroom and a study. Every home has a rainwater tank, a hot water heat pump, an air conditioning allowance, room on the roof for solar panels and space for three 240 litre bins.

The two site plans below show how the block subdivides. On the 500 square metre LMR site the three Torrens lots are 176.82, 145.85 and 176.82 square metres. On the 600 square metre site outside LMR housing areas they are 226.77, 145.85 and 226.77 square metres.

These are the published figures for the base pattern. The three homes are the same size as each other; what changes between the two base patterns is the land around them, because the block outside an LMR housing area is wider and needs a side setback.

The pattern is a set of pre defined options rather than a single fixed building, and the design verification statement has to record which ones you pick. On the ground floor each terrace can have an enclosed garage or a flexible front room, and the middle terrace can swap its garage for a flexible room and bathroom. On the first floor the front bedroom is either one large bedroom or a bedroom and study split.

There are six official site adaptations. Adaptation 01 is a corner site from 566 square metres and 17 metres wide. Adaptation 02 is a corner site with rear parking from 585 square metres and 17.4 metres wide, with a 2 metre secondary street setback. Adaptation 03 is a rear lane garage from 560 square metres and 15 metres wide. Adaptation 04 adds a roof terrace and Adaptation 05 adds an extra room in the roof, both up to 9.4 metres tall and both allowed only in LMR housing areas. Adaptation 06 is the tunnel back plan for sites outside LMR housing areas.

A rear studio or garage can be added where the site length and access allow, and a 5 metre clearance has to be kept between the terraces and any outbuilding. The building can also step internally for up to 2 metres of fall front to back and 1.5 metres side to side.

The street front is always brick. Three bricks are offered: BR1 Renovation Gertrudis Brown, BR2 Simmental Silver and BR3 Chillingham White. The back of the house can be brick as well, or a lightweight cladding in fibre cement sheet or painted weatherboard in Cockle or Archer. Metal roofing, painted steel fittings in Tawny, Monument, Whatnot, Archer or Blue, and awning fabric in green, yellow, pink or blue complete the kit.

Three complete character palettes are published. Palette 1 pairs brown brick with bronze painted steel and bronze sheet. Palette 2 pairs cream brick with green painted steel. Palette 3 pairs grey brick with black painted steel. Any substitution still has to match the colour, profile and finish relationships in the technical package, and the choice should sit comfortably in the existing street.

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 local council mapping and get professional advice.

The pattern book pathway does not apply on bush fire prone land, even at the lowest BAL rating of 12.5, or on excluded flood prone land. Heritage items and heritage conservation areas are also out. Landslip risk land, registered easements that cross the proposed building area, coastal hazard land, foreshore land and unsewered land all need to be ruled out, and a battle axe block will not suit a pattern that depends on a continuous street frontage.

Get the survey contours before you commit. The pattern accommodates up to 2 metres of fall front to back and 1.5 metres side to side, and Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey. Check the sewer main, easements and other title restrictions against the 22.3 metre building footprint, and confirm the driveway crossover can meet AS 2890.1 sight lines without relying on a neighbour's land.

Think about the neighbours to the south. A block north of existing houses can overshadow them, and every application has to show that a living room window more than 3 metres from the boundary still gets more than 3 hours of direct sun between 9 am and 3 pm on 21 June, or that the sun it already gets is not reduced.

We recommend asking Good Architect to undertake a site feasibility study before buying the land or the pattern licence. The study can test the planning constraints, the fall across the site and the shadows cast on the neighbours before you commit.

These are the numeric controls that apply when the design is lodged as pattern book complying development under the Codes SEPP. The first figure is for low and mid rise housing areas and the second for the rest of NSW. The base pattern is drawn 8.8 metres high; the extra height in the standard is there so the design can be adapted to a sloping site.

The NSW Government sells the pattern licence through its official shop. On 6 August 2026 the listing showed a regular price and a subsidised price of $1,000.00, described as subsidised for the first 6 months, and the product was marked sold out. Price and availability change, so check the shop before you plan around it. The fee buys the technical drawings in PDF and 2D DWG formats, a BASIX information sheet, an editable design verification statement template, the landscape guide and a unique pattern registration number to quote on your application.

You then engage an architect or accredited designer to adapt the drawings to the site. The design verification statement must be completed by an architect or accredited designer who states their professional registration; an architect must be on the NSW Register of Architects. The statement confirms every fixed and adaptable feature has been carried into the submitted design.

The application is lodged as a complying development certificate under Part 3BA of the Codes SEPP, and the Pattern Book Development Code 2025 sets an accelerated 10 day timeframe, against 20 days for a standard residential complying development certificate. The pattern designs sit alongside the Housing SEPP reforms that created the low and mid rise housing areas.

The drawings are an indicative design for a planning application, not a construction set. After approval you still need construction documentation, engineering, a survey, a stormwater design and a BASIX certificate with its NatHERS thermal assessment. Every home has to meet the ABCB Livable Housing Design Standard and the pattern is capable of meeting the National Construction Code as a Class 1a building, subject to final specifications.

Before committing to the land, the licence or the application, start with Good Architect's site feasibility study to test whether this pattern can be responsibly adapted to the site.