What can I build on my block in NSW?
Enter a NSW address and get a free site report: the zone, the height limit, the floor space ratio, the minimum lot size, heritage, flood, bushfire, slope and complying development, with the block drawn on an aerial photo with contours. It is written for people buying a block or planning a new home, and every reading names the public map it came from.
NSW addresses only. Free, and no sign up.
What does each reading mean?
Each reading has its own page that explains what the control is, where the number comes from and what it does not tell you.
What can I build on my block in NSW?
It depends on the zone, the controls mapped over the block, the hazards on it, and its size and shape. The zone in the council's Local Environmental Plan (LEP) says which kinds of home are allowed, such as a house, a granny flat or a duplex. The height limit, the floor space ratio and the minimum lot size then limit how big, and how many. Flood, bushfire, heritage and slope decide how involved the build is, and whether you can use complying development, the faster approval a private certifier can issue.
Enter your address above and the report reads all of these for your block in one place, draws the block on an aerial photo with contours, and shows where a new house could sit inside the Housing Code setbacks. It is a first look, and the council or a certifier has the final word.
How do I find out everything about a property before I buy?
Start with the free public maps, then get the documents that carry legal weight. This checker covers the first step: zoning, height, floor space ratio, heritage, flood, bushfire, slope and the other mapped constraints, for any NSW address.
In NSW the seller must attach a section 10.7 planning certificate to the contract for sale, so read it closely and ask your conveyancer about anything on it you do not understand. Before you commit it is also worth getting a building and pest inspection, checking the title and the sewer diagram for easements and sewer lines, and, for a block you plan to build on, a survey and an early conversation with a designer.
What is a site analysis and do I need one before I design?
A site analysis is a drawing with short notes that records everything about a block that shapes a design: the boundaries, the slope and contours, north and the sun, views, noise, the neighbours' windows, trees, drainage and the planning controls. Many NSW councils ask for a site analysis plan with a development application, and a good designer starts every project with one.
This report is a head start on it. It covers the mapped controls, the hazards, the slope and which way the block faces, but a full site analysis also needs someone to walk the block and look over the fence.
Is this the same as a section 10.7 planning certificate?
No. A section 10.7 planning certificate is issued by the council under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and it is the legal statement of the planning controls and hazards that apply to a lot. This report reads many of the same public maps, instantly and for free, but it is not a certificate and cannot be relied on as one.
Order the certificate from the council when you are buying or selling, or when an application asks for one.
Where does this information come from and how current is it?
Every reading comes from a public government source. Lot boundaries come from the NSW cadastre, zoning and the other planning controls from the NSW Planning Portal's spatial layers, bushfire from the NSW Rural Fire Service bush fire prone land map and council maps, flood from council flood studies, the NSW Planning Portal and the NSW SES, and ground levels from Geoscience Australia's 5 metre LiDAR elevation model. The aerial photo is NSW Spatial Services imagery.
A reading is kept for up to 30 days, so a map the council changed recently may not show yet. Each hazard section names the maps that answered, and the notes at the foot of the report credit every source.
How big is my block and which way does it face?
The report answers this first: the area, width and depth of the block, whether it is a corner lot, and which compass direction the front boundary faces. The area is the registered area from the deposited plan where the cadastre holds one, and otherwise it is measured from the boundary shape, and the report says which.
A block whose front faces south has its backyard to the north, the easiest orientation for north facing living rooms. For how steep the block is, use the site slope calculator.