What can I build in R4 High Density Residential?
R4 High Density Residential is the zone for apartment buildings. If you own a house in R4, the planning system expects your street to change, and the rules for adding a granny flat or rebuilding can be tighter than people assume.
This page covers what the state requires in R4, what councils decide for themselves, and what owners, buyers and small developers ask most. Type your address below to see the zone, height and floor space ratio maps for your block.
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What can I build in R4 High Density Residential?
Apartment buildings, with development consent. The Standard Instrument requires every R4 zone to permit residential flat buildings, shop top housing and boarding houses, along with child care centres, community facilities, neighbourhood shops, places of public worship and respite day care centres.
The zone's objectives are to provide housing within a high density residential environment, to provide a variety of housing types, and to allow other uses that meet residents' day to day needs. Houses, dual occupancies, townhouses and home occupations are all the council's choice in R4. To see your council's full list, open its Local Environmental Plan on NSW legislation, go to Part 2 and find the zone in the Land Use Table. The Planning Portal Spatial Viewer shows the zone and the other maps for a single lot.
Can I build a house in R4?
Only if your council's LEP permits dwelling houses in R4, and some councils leave them out. If houses are prohibited, an existing house can generally keep being used under existing use rights, but a new house or a large rebuild may not be possible, so ask the council or a town planner before you buy with that plan.
Where houses are permitted, the Housing Code can approve a new one or two storey house as complying development on a lot of at least 200 m² with a 6 metre frontage at the building line.
How tall can buildings be in R4?
As tall as your council's Height of Buildings Map allows for that lot, which in R4 ranges from a few storeys to towers depending on the council and the location. The floor space ratio map sets how much floor area the building can hold.
In a low and mid rise housing area (within 800 metres walk of a listed station or town centre), the Housing SEPP sets higher floors for apartment buildings. Within 400 metres the council can't refuse a residential flat building for a height of up to 22 metres and six storeys or a floor space ratio of up to 2.2:1, or shop top housing up to 24 metres. Between 400 and 800 metres the figures are 17.5 metres and four storeys at 1.5:1. Where the LEP already allows more, the LEP's figure applies. Building height explains how height is measured.
Can I build a granny flat or a duplex in R4?
Only if your council allows it. The Housing SEPP permits a granny flat in R4 only where a house is permissible under another plan, so if your council prohibits houses in R4, the state's granny flat rule doesn't apply. Dual occupancies are not on the compulsory list for R4 either, and the Low Rise Housing Diversity Code, the complying path for duplexes, doesn't cover R4 at all.
How did the 2025 low and mid rise housing reforms change R4?
From 28 February 2025, R4 land in low and mid rise housing areas gained state standards that lift what an apartment building can be: up to six storeys within 400 metres of a listed station or mapped town centre, and up to four storeys out to 800 metres, with the floor space ratios above. The LEP's own minimum lot size and frontage for apartments don't apply to a building that meets those standards. The areas are in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Lower Hunter and Newcastle, and the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, and excluded land such as bush fire prone land and heritage items is left out.
What does R4 zoning mean if I own a house there?
It means the planning system expects the land to be redeveloped for apartments over time. Houses around you may be bought, combined and replaced with apartment buildings up to the mapped height, and your own lot may be worth more to a developer as part of a larger site. Some LEPs and DCPs set a minimum site area or frontage for an apartment building, which is why developers often combine two or more lots.
Apartment buildings of three or more storeys with four or more homes are also assessed against the Housing SEPP's design quality principles and the state's Apartment Design Guide, which covers things like solar access, cross ventilation and the separation between buildings.
Can I run a business from home in R4?
Possibly, but your council decides whether home occupations are allowed in R4, because the Standard Instrument doesn't make them compulsory here. The state's exempt development code lets a home business, home industry or home occupation go ahead with no approval if it doesn't make food or involve skin penetration, doesn't change the building's use, and stays within your LEP's floor area limit for a home business. In an apartment, your strata by laws may also limit what you can do.
Can I use complying development in R4?
For a house, sometimes: the Housing Code covers R4, but only where houses are permitted. Apartment buildings always need a development application, and the Low Rise Housing Diversity Code doesn't apply in R4. See complying development.
What else do people ask?
What is the difference between R3 and R4?
R3 is for medium density housing such as townhouses and terraces, with apartments permitted near listed stations and town centres. R4 is for apartment buildings everywhere it applies, and usually carries higher height and floor space ratio limits on the council's maps.
Is R4 land always worth more?
Not always. R4 allows more housing, but value depends on the mapped height and floor space ratio, the lot's size and frontage, whether neighbouring lots can be combined, and constraints such as flood or heritage. A small R4 lot that can't be combined may be worth little more than a house lot.
Can I keep living in my house if my street is rezoned R4?
Yes. Rezoning doesn't force anyone to sell or rebuild, and a lawfully built house can generally keep being used even if new houses are no longer permitted. The change mostly matters when you want to build, extend or sell.
Where does this information come from?
Permitted uses differ by council LEP, so check your council's land use table before you rely on anything here. This page is general information about NSW planning law, not advice about your block. It is not a section 10.7 planning certificate, and it does not replace your council, your certifier, legal advice or your own designer.