How to Build a Granny Flat: Step-by-Step Guide

If you are looking for a step-by-step guide for how to build a granny flat, watch this video or read for advice from an experienced developer.

Click on the “Play” button below to watch now:



Or for those that prefer to read, here is a transcript of the video…

Okay, this is How to Build a Granny Flat: Step-by-Step Guide and my name is Colin Fragar from Council Approval Group.
Can give you a tip on this? Don’t go to YouTube. Don’t try to figure it out. Go to the experts. go to somebody who’s done it for thousands of projects like us.

Granny Flat Strategies for Approval

So here’s some steps to go through in building your granny flat. The first thing to think about is one of two ways you can handle it. You can get the approval in place first and then go out to tender to a to a builder. Or you can go to a granny flat builder that has the designs. I’ll show you what I mean.

Granny Flat Builders

The most common scenario, which I don’t think is the best one, is this. Say there’s three different granny flat builders in town that you could go to. Each have some standard designs, so you talk to them and choose one a builder and their granny flat design. They get the approval in place and you’re then locked into them for the course of the project, both for the approval and for the construction. Often this doesn’t mean that it’s the lowest cost price. Also, these designs are typically fairly standard, so they don’t really suit to the site.

Custom Design and Approval First

The alternative, which I think is the higher and better way, is what I want to show you today. And that is designing your own granny flat. If you use our team to design it, you custom build it, it sits on the site and it’s exactly what you want. It allows you to to have the private open space, preserve the amenity that you want to see, and you’ve still got a very nice property. We can handle the plans and the approval process, so after you have the approval in hand and you to go to one of hundreds of different builders with your design to build a granny flat. You say I got the approval, can you build it? It means you can move quicker and you’re not based one person’s timeframes. In terms of the construction industry, you’re not restricted to the terms and price of one builder. It really puts you in control.

More Information

If you would like to learn more about granny flats and you’re just researching, but you want a bit more information, there’s a special guide we’ve put together. It’s called Your Ultimate Guide to Council Approval. In the magazine we go through some thoughts about granny flats. So recommend you grab that and we’ll send that out to you complimentary.

Take the Next Step

If you do have a site in mind, you own a property or you’re about to purchase one, and you would like to have a one-on-one consultation, please claim free your consultation. Book it in. We aren’t able to answer every question for you in that 30 minute consultation, but what we will do is listen to you. We’ll hear what your concerns are, what your challenges are that you’re facing, and what your questions are. Next, we’ll help you take the first step to creating your road map to success.

So my name is Colin Fragar. Thanks for joining us. I hope that this has been helpful. And I do wish you every success as you go through this step-by-step guide that we’ve put in place in building a granny flat.