What is the height limit on my block?
Written by Shea Cullen, architect, for Dudils.
Most residential land in New South Wales has a maximum building height set on the Height of Buildings Map in the council's Local Environmental Plan (LEP). Type your address and the Site Checker reads that number for your lot from the NSW Planning Portal, with the slope of the block on the same report, because slope decides how a height limit plays out on a real site.
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What is the height limit on my property?
It is the number in metres on your LEP's Height of Buildings Map, and the Site Checker shows it for your lot. On land zoned for houses it is commonly 8.5 or 9 metres, with higher limits where the zone is meant for townhouses or apartments. The limit applies through clause 4.3 of the LEP, which every council's plan takes from the state's Standard Instrument, while the map sets the number street by street.
The height limit is a maximum, not an entitlement. The DCP, the neighbours' sunlight and the shape of the block can each hold a design below it.
How is building height measured?
Building height is measured vertically from existing ground level to the highest point of the building directly above it, including plant and lift overruns but not chimneys, flues, aerials and the like. Existing is the key word: it means the ground as it is before any work, not the level after you cut or fill. The limit is tested at every point across the footprint, so it follows the land rather than a single level.
On a level block that is simple. On a sloping block the height plane steps down the hill with the ground, and the downhill end of the house is where a design usually breaks the limit. A house with level floors on a block that falls 3 metres across its footprint has 3 metres less height to work with at the low end than at the high end. Measure how much your block falls with the slope calculator, or read the slope on the Site Checker report for the same address.
Where the ground was dug out years ago for an existing building, the Land and Environment Court (in Bettar v Council of the City of Sydney, 2014) has held that existing ground level is worked out from the natural ground around the excavation, not from the floor of it. A surveyor's levels across the whole lot are the starting point for any design close to the limit.
How many storeys is 8.5 metres?
Two storeys with a pitched roof fits under 8.5 metres on a level block, and three storeys generally does not. A typical two storey house is about 6 metres from the ground to the upper ceiling, and a pitched roof adds roughly 1.5 to 2.5 metres depending on its pitch and span. Three storeys with standard 2.7 metre ceilings and the floors between them reach about 9 metres before any roof goes on.
The Housing Code, the state's complying development code for houses, also caps a new house at 8.5 metres above existing ground level. Many DCPs limit the number of storeys separately, often to two on low density land, so check the DCP even where the metres would allow more.
What if my block has no height limit on the map?
Not mapped does not mean there is no height limit. Plenty of LEPs leave some residential land off the Height of Buildings Map, and the height is then controlled by the council's DCP, by another clause in the LEP or, for complying development, by the Codes SEPP's own 8.5 metre limit for a house. When the map has no number for your lot, the Site Checker says it is not mapped rather than guessing one, and your council's DCP is the next place to look.
Can I go over the height limit?
Sometimes through a development application, never through complying development. Clause 4.6 of the LEP lets council approve a building that breaks a development standard such as height where the applicant shows, in a written request, that compliance is unreasonable or unnecessary in the circumstances and that there are sufficient environmental planning grounds for the breach. The clause was amended on 1 November 2023, which removed the separate public interest test and the need for the Planning Secretary's concurrence, but kept those two tests.
A variation is argued case by case and is never guaranteed, and the more visible the extra height is to neighbours, the harder it is to justify. A complying development certificate cannot vary a standard at all: if the design is over the Codes SEPP height, it needs a DA.
What else limits how tall I can build?
The LEP height is only one envelope. The DCP or the Codes SEPP also sets wall heights and a building envelope that slopes in from the side boundaries, which usually shapes the upper floor more than the overall limit does. Overshadowing controls that protect a neighbour's living areas and back yard in midwinter can pull an upper floor further in. Near an airport, the Obstacle Limitation Surface can cap height below the LEP number, and the Site Checker shows it in the other constraints section where one applies. If the block is in a heritage conservation area, council will also judge the height against the houses around it.
What is the height limit on my block? Check any NSW address, free.
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What else do people ask?
Is the height limit measured to the ridge or the gutter?
To the highest point of the building, which on a pitched roof is the ridge. Wall and eave heights are separate controls in most DCPs and in the Codes SEPP.
Does a basement count towards building height?
The parts below existing ground level do not add to the height, because the limit is measured up from that ground. Digging a basement does not lower the ground the limit is measured from, though, so the building above it still has to fit under the plane.
Where do I find the height limit if the Site Checker cannot read it?
Open the Height of Buildings Map for your LEP in the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer, or ask council. The section 10.7 planning certificate names the LEP and DCP that apply to the lot.
Where does this information come from?
The Site Checker reads public maps. It is not a section 10.7 planning certificate, a flood certificate, a bushfire attack level assessment or a survey, and a map can be out of date for your lot. Confirm anything you rely on with council or the relevant authority before you buy, design or build. Nothing on this page replaces advice from your certifier, engineer, lawyer or your own designer.