Pattern Book Terraces 02: the NSW three terrace design explained

Two base patterns cover the whole state. In low and mid rise (LMR) housing areas the smallest block is 18.5 metres wide and 515 square metres, which is a site about 27.8 metres deep. Everywhere else the smallest block is 21 metres wide and 670 square metres, about 31.8 metres deep, because the front setback jumps from 3 metres to 7 metres and the side setbacks widen from 0.9 to 1.5 metres. Lot width is measured at the front building line.

Depth matters as much as width. The base pattern needs 27.8 metres in an LMR area and 31.8 metres elsewhere. Adding a detached studio behind the homes needs 32.2 or 36.5 metres, and adding rear lane garages needs 34.1 or 36.6 metres.

The fourteen cards below are every siting and orientation example the pattern publishes, for mid block, corner and rear lane sites, at each frontage orientation the drawings show. Each card keeps the drawing's own site boundary and minimum dimensions.

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 1.2 metre limits above. Bush fire prone land, excluded flood prone land, heritage items and heritage conservation areas all rule out the complying development pathway, and they need to be checked separately.

The pattern can be used anywhere in NSW where multi dwelling housing in the form of terraces is already permitted with consent. What changes is which base pattern applies. Low and mid rise housing areas are the well located residential zones within an 800 metre walk of selected town centres and stations, and they get the smaller lot, the 3 metre front setback and the attic option. Everywhere else the non LMR base pattern applies, and the lot must also meet the local environmental plan minimum lot size for this development type. You can look your address up on the NSW Planning Portal map.

The fast track pathway is a complying development certificate under Part 3BA of the Codes SEPP. Like any complying development, it is not available on high risk or otherwise constrained land, including bush fire prone land and certain flood prone land. It is also not available in heritage conservation areas or on heritage sites; those still need a standard development application.

Every pattern book development has to show how it responds to the NSW Housing Pattern Book Landscape Guide, which sets the tree canopy and deep soil expectations, and it has to give adjoining homes reasonable solar access as defined in the Low Rise Housing Diversity Design Guide.

The base pattern is three terraces in a row. The two end homes are 5.6 metres wide and the middle home is 5.45 metres, giving a building 16.65 metres wide inside 0.9 metre side setbacks in an LMR area. The non LMR version is the same design on a wider block, an 18 metre wide building inside 1.5 metre side setbacks. Both are 16 metres deep.

Each home has its own path and front door from the street, a bin store at the front, a hallway past a toilet and laundry, then a kitchen and dining room opening to a living room at the back. A skylight sits over the stair, another over the living room, and the living room opens to a covered patio and a private garden. A rainwater tank sits in the garden of every home.

Upstairs the base plan has three bedrooms, a bathroom and a linen cupboard, with a balcony off the principal bedroom at the front. The roof is a simple metal deck, pitched 28 degrees to the street and 19 degrees to the rear, with two solar panel zones of 18 to 33 square metres on every home.

These are the dimensions the technical drawings publish. The pattern does not publish a gross floor area per home, so the figures below are the drawn dimensions plus the floor space ratio of the base pattern as drawn, which is the honest way to size it.

The pattern is a set of predefined options, not a free hand. Every home picks one of three ground floors: an integrated garage, open plan living with a dining room to the street, or a multi generational layout with a ground floor bedroom and bathroom in place of the garage. Upstairs it picks either three bedrooms with one bathroom, or two bedrooms and a study with the toilet separated from the bathroom.

Three further options depend on the site. A detached garage off a rear lane is available where there is a lane and enough site length. A detached studio with a bathroom can go behind the homes, subject to site length and the landscaped area requirement, and it must sit at least 10 metres clear of the terraces. An attic bedroom or study with a dormer window can be added in the roof, but only in LMR housing areas.

Extra site width is absorbed in a set order: side setbacks first, then living rooms and garages, then the stair, then the corridor, then the terraces themselves, up to 25.1 metres. Past that an extra terrace is added, and the row can keep growing to the 45 metre maximum unbroken street frontage. The pattern also steps for up to 1.2 metres of fall front to back and 1.2 metres side to side, with a maximum 0.6 metre level change between neighbouring terraces.

Whatever you choose has to be declared. The design verification statement lodged with the application must state which adaptations and options were selected and confirm they meet the original design intent.

The materials are deliberately ordinary and durable: dry pressed brick, timber or aluminium batten cladding, vertical board or fibre cement cladding, a metal deck roof and aluminium or timber window frames. Brick colour has to be integral, so no glazed or painted brick.

Three colour palettes are published and the colours cannot be mixed between palettes. Palette 1 is greens and creams, palette 2 is reds and blush pinks, palette 3 is greys. The pattern documents illustrate palettes 1 and 2 on the street facade; palette 3 is published as colour swatches only.

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

Get a survey and check the contours. The pattern takes up to 1.2 metres of fall front to back and 1.2 metres side to side, and Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey. Bush fire prone land, including the lowest BAL rating of 12.5, and excluded flood prone land both rule out the complying development pathway, as do heritage items and heritage conservation areas. Landslip risk land, registered easements that cross the building area, coastal hazard land, foreshore land and unsewered land all need to be ruled out too, and a battle axe lot has no street frontage for a row of terraces.

Parking is the constraint people miss. In an LMR area a garage can only be built into two of the three homes, and the third home relies on the street or a rear lane. Outside LMR areas each home needs at least one off street space, which is why the middle home gets a hardstand space in the front setback. Rear lane garages and rear studios both need real site length, and the studio also has to leave the 20 percent minimum landscaped area intact.

This is a two storey row on the boundary between neighbours, so overshadowing and overlooking are live issues. A site north of existing houses can take winter sun off its southern neighbours, and adjoining living rooms and private open spaces have to keep reasonable solar access. We recommend asking Good Architect to undertake a site feasibility study before buying the land, taking an option or buying the licence, so the constraints and the likely yield can be tested together.

These are the numeric controls that apply where this pattern is proposed as pattern book complying development under the Codes SEPP. The first figure is for LMR housing areas, the second for everywhere else.

The NSW Government pattern licence is licence from $1,000 per lot. On 6 August 2026 the official shop listed Terraces 02 at $1,000, marked as subsidised for the first six months, and the design was available to buy. Prices and availability change, so confirm both on the shop before you rely on them.

The licence buys the technical drawings in PDF and 2D DWG formats, a BASIX information sheet, the editable design verification statement template, the landscape guide and a unique identification number for your application. Files are delivered electronically and the download window is limited, so buy the licence when your project is ready to move.

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

Approval is a complying development certificate under the Pattern Book Development Code, with a 10 day timeframe against 20 days for standard residential complying development. Reduced assessment does not remove the rest of the work: you still need a survey, a landscape plan, a BASIX certificate, a waste management plan, stormwater design by an engineer and a driveway crossing approval. Applications must still demonstrate BASIX and NatHERS compliance, meet the National Construction Code as Class 1a buildings and meet the ABCB Livable Housing Design Standard.

The pattern drawings are an indicative design for a planning application, not construction drawings. After approval you still need full construction documentation and a builder. Before committing to the land, the licence or the application, start with a Good Architect site feasibility study to test whether this pattern can be responsibly adapted to your site.