Pattern Book Terraces 04: lot sizes, plans and the 10 day approval path

Two different minimums apply. Inside a low and mid rise (LMR) housing area, a mapped zone near selected town centres and stations, the lot must be at least 18 metres wide and 595 square metres. Everywhere else in NSW it must be at least 21 metres wide and 695 square metres, and it must also meet the local council minimum lot size for multi dwelling housing. Lot width is measured at the front building line.

The pattern suits parcels that are narrow and deep, like a traditional terrace street. The published site conditions run from 33 metres deep on a rear lane lot up to about 40 metres, and from the minimum width up to 23 metres. Wider lots do not add homes; the extra width goes to the north setback (the gap between the building and the north boundary) and the small dwelling's open space.

All twelve official site conditions are below, six for LMR housing areas and six for the rest of NSW, covering mid block, corner and double site arrangements in each of the four street orientations. Each one is a row of three dwellings on one lot; the two double site cards put a matching row on each of two adjoining lots.

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 below, and check State and council mapping to confirm the land is not bush fire prone or excluded flood land.

The pattern can be used anywhere in NSW where multi dwelling housing (terraces) is already permitted with consent, provided the lot meets the size, width and setback standards. There are two versions of the design: a base pattern for low and mid rise housing areas, which are the well located residential zones within 800 metres walk of selected town centres and stations, and a base pattern for the rest of NSW, which the pattern book calls non LMR housing areas and which carries an extra parking space per dwelling. You can look these areas up on the NSW Planning Portal map.

The fast track is a complying development certificate under part 3BA of the Codes SEPP, the State policy that sets the complying development rules, in its Pattern Book Development Code 2025. Pattern book certificates carry a 10 day approval timeframe, against 20 days for standard residential complying development.

Complying development is not available on excluded land. That includes bush fire prone land, certain flood prone land, heritage items and heritage conservation areas. On excluded land the pattern can still be proposed, but only through a standard development application with the normal assessment timeframes.

Each of the three homes in the row is made of three buildings. The front building is single storey and holds a flexible room such as a studio or home office, often with its own bathroom and kitchenette, plus the carport where one is provided. The middle building is the two storey heart of the house: kitchen, dining, living, bathrooms and the switchback stair. The rear building is single storey again and holds a bedroom, a retreat, a kitchenette and a bathroom.

Between them sit two courtyards, each at least 4.8 metres deep. The primary courtyard is the main outdoor living space and is placed to catch the sun; the secondary courtyard is the shaded one, and carries water tanks, services and denser planting. Both must stay pervious (unsealed, so rain soaks into the ground) and open to the sky.

The three homes are deliberately different sizes. The small terrace has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and a studio. The medium terrace has 3 bedrooms, a wet room and a bathroom, and is drawn to the Gold level of the Livable Housing Design Guidelines. The large terrace has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a separate WC. An alternative fitout of the same plans gives the large terrace 3 bedrooms plus a home office and a studio or workshop instead.

Both complete drawing sets are below: the five sheets for a LMR housing area lot, then the five for a lot anywhere else in NSW. The second floor sheets show the third storey dormer, which is an adaptation and is not part of the base pattern.

The pattern book publishes a floor area per dwelling and, because the row can be subdivided under Torrens title (each home on its own land title), an area for each of the three lots. Those lot areas change with the width and depth of the parent site, so the table below gives the range across the official adaptations rather than a single number.

The pattern is a set of rules, not one fixed house. What moves is the position of the primary courtyard, which always follows the sun, and which buildings can grow. On a north facing lot the primary courtyards sit north of the middle building and a dormer can be added on the north side, but no extra storey is allowed on the south because of overshadowing. On a south facing lot an extra storey can go on the front building instead, and on some south facing sites the small, medium and large mix does not work at all, so the sheets call for three medium terraces.

East and west facing lots put the primary courtyards behind the middle building. Corner sites give the large terrace two frontages. Rear lane sites turn the rear building into the carports and let the reduced laneway setback grow whichever courtyard suits the sun better.

What stays fixed: three buildings per dwelling with two courtyards between them, the 25 degree gable roofs (10 degrees on bay windows, 5 degrees on dormers), windows set out on a 1.2 metre grid, eaves and gutters aligned across all three homes, and one consistent external material palette across the row. Carport doors, when used, must be the fixed panel tilt door from the pattern module with at least 50 per cent transparency. Every adaptation chosen has to be listed in the design verification statement, the signed form confirming your plans match the pattern.

Two character options are published, one exterior and one interior sheet each. Both share a lightweight timber structure, Custom Orb Zincalume roofing, translucent fibreglass sheeting over entries and windows, Australian red pressed brick low fences and timber front fences with a clear preservative finish.

Option 1 paints the fibre cement cladding, the facade battens and the exposed structure, and uses uPVC or aluminium windows, composite decking, plywood linings and timber floors. Option 2 leaves the battens and exposed structure as external grade timber with a clear finish, uses Australian hardwood windows, doors and decking, and swaps the interior to painted linings with cork floors and wool carpet in the flexible rooms.

The pattern book asks that the palette be consistent across all three dwellings in the row, and that the choice respond to the existing streetscape. Refer to the technical documentation for the full material specification.

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.

Get a survey and check the contours. The pattern takes up to 3 metres of fall front to back, and Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey. The development standards page allows 1.8 metres of cross fall while the pattern selections template in the same document says 1.2 metres, so confirm the current figure with your designer before relying on it.

Complying development is not available on bush fire prone land, and even the lowest bush fire attack level of BAL 12.5 rules it out. The same goes for excluded flood land, heritage items and heritage conservation areas. Also rule out landslip risk land, registered easements that cross the proposed building area, coastal hazard and foreshore land, and land without sewer. Battle axe lots (reached by a long driveway beside another lot) do not suit a pattern that needs a street frontage for three homes.

Watch the neighbours to the south. A site north of existing homes can overshadow them, and every pattern book development has to show that reasonable solar access, as defined in the Low Rise Housing Diversity Design Guide, is kept to the living rooms and private open spaces next door. That is why no extra storey is allowed on the southern side of the middle building.

Landscape is a requirement: at least 20 per cent of the site must be landscaped, the courtyards must stay pervious, and the application has to show it has considered the NSW Housing Pattern Book Landscape Design Guide and the tree canopy targets. We recommend asking Good Architect to undertake a site feasibility study before you commit to the land or the licence, so the constraints and the likely yield can be tested together.

These are the numeric controls specific to this pattern where it is proposed as pattern book complying development under the Codes SEPP. The first figure applies in a low and mid rise housing area, the second everywhere else in NSW.

The NSW Government pattern licence is licence from $1,000 per lot. On 8 August 2026 the official shop listing showed $1,000.00, marked subsidised for the first six months, with the pattern available to buy. The subsidy has an end date, so check the pattern book shop before you count on it.

The licence buys the technical drawings in PDF and 2D DWG formats, BASIX information, the design verification statement template and the landscape guide. Files are issued electronically within five business days and you get a unique pattern registration number to quote in the application.

You then engage a designer to adapt the drawings to your site. For this low rise pathway the design verification statement can be completed by either an architect on the NSW Register of Architects or an accredited designer, and they must include their registration in the statement. It has to confirm that every fixed and adaptable feature required by the pattern is present in what you are lodging, and which options you have chosen.

The application is then lodged for a complying development certificate, with a 10 day approval timeframe. The drawings are indicative designs for planning approval, not construction drawings, so you still need full construction documentation, engineering, a BASIX certificate and compliance with the National Construction Code for a Class 1a building (the building code class for houses and terraces), plus the Livable Housing Design Standard.

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