A ‘Manor House’ appears to be a two-storey single dwelling, but is in fact a small apartment building containing multiple units. What makes this development type particularly exciting is their capacity to be strata titled so they can be sold off individually.
The main benefits of Manor Houses include:
Manor Houses offer an attractive investment opportunity due to their flexibility, affordability, and potential for high returns. Unlike boarding houses, rooming houses, or shared houses, Manor Houses can be strata subdivided. This means each unit can be individually owned, offering greater flexibility for investors and residents alike.
Approval Process: Securing approval for Manor Houses involves navigating complex regulations. However, with the new proposed laws in NSW, the process is becoming more streamlined. It’s crucial to work with experienced professionals to ensure compliance with all planning requirements.
Design Standards: Meeting the design standards set by the NSW Government is essential. This includes considerations for height, floor space ratio, and car parking requirements to ensure developments are both practical and attractive.
Registered Design Practitioner: Manor Houses must be designed by a Registered Design Practitioner – Architect with an unrestricted licence for Class 2 buildings. This ensures that the development meets all necessary standards and regulations, adding a layer of complexity to the planning process.
Site Selection: Finding suitable sites that meet all zoning and accessibility requirements can be challenging. It requires careful evaluation and planning to ensure the location is ideal for development and complies with all local regulations.
Narrow Rules for Compliance – Did you know that Manor House development is also covered by a state policy which has detailed rules for compliance. Many good projects get tripped up because the provisions are not understood and therefore the plans do not comply.
Fire rating standards – There are many complicated local and state legislative requirements for fire rating of Manor House. It is essential that the design of the Manor House factor in these standards. But how will you know what these standards are? How will you make sure that your chosen architect is qualified to design a Manor House that also achieves the appropriate design standards to comply with the fire rating legislation and codes?
Location – You decide to apply to council for a Manor House development in a well established suburb and within a zone that permits Manor House developments. However, the local residents form a petition to council strongly objecting to the establishment of a Manor House in their area as they are worried that it will detrimentally impact on their residential amenity and lead to a lowering of their house values. How would you address these potential issues in your development application to council? How do you demonstrate that grounds of objection to a development application will only hold legal weight if they are based on certain planning principles?
Development Standards – There are minimum standards for a Manor House to be permissible. It’s not just about zoning, lot size and width. This style of development is very much in its infancy and so a prudent understanding by a Registered Town Planner and Architect are needed to get your proposal approved. Don’t be tempted to shop around for a consultant as poor advice will likely unstick your project on these Manor Houses.
We understand that getting to the point of having the right approval for your Manor House is not an easy journey. It’s one that needs the best experience the industry has to offer. That’s why we’re here to help… We’d love to make your council approval journey for a Manor House simple and as pain-free as possible
We’ve worked on many Manor House projects and have dedicated town planners and designers that specialise in this type of development application.
You can glean from the wisdom we’ve gained from all of our past projects. 25 years of being in the industry and our 50 consecutive years of experience has taught us a few things
Ready to get started? Book in for your Free 30 minute consultation.
*We have a 98% success rate in achieving development approval where our client follows our proven 7 Step formula which we have developed over the past 25+ years and where the client is willing to go all the way to seek that approval on appeal if needed.
The key? Our Preliminary Planning Assessment, inclusive of your personal Project Strategy Session.
To get that success rate it has only come after helping over 30,491 people. We’ve worked hard to smooth out the kinks before they appear by carrying out this Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA) on your property. It works a treat, especially for what it can do for you, the journey of the project and its future.
Want to learn more about a PPA and how to get one? Book a FREE CONSULT
We could make up a fantasied timeframe to wow you, but to be straight up the length of getting an approval is dependent on the project development type, the local council, who examines your application within council, location of the property within the local council and on the property itself, and the list goes on. The approval process will no doubt take longer than you expect because we are dealing with administrative red tape.
But what our team has done has studied the 30,491+ properties we have been involved in and analysed the 300+ flight years of team council approval experience to create a formidable system.
So to answer the question, how long does it take for us to get council approval? The fastest in our industry.
We have over 20 team members lead by our founder Max Fragar with his 50 consecutive years of town planning and council approval knowledge. The team is made up of skilled town planners, property consultants and designers that we have hand picked to work on your project. It turns out that we’ve had over 300 collective years of experience working and dealing with local government councils.
What does this mean for you? One word, streamline. We know how to talk the council lingo, can perceive even predict the ins and outs of those council hoops of fire, and understand the nitty gritty to work tirelessly to achieve the best outcomes for our clients and their projects.
Check out our current team
Our firm currently has the capacity to assist clients with projects located across New South Wales, Victoria and South East Queensland. We anticipate being able to offer our services to other states in the near future.
Get ready, this could be the best decision you’ll make in the lifetime of your property portfolio.
If you’re looking at a property or already own one and you’re serious about making the property work harder for you, the next step is to book a free 30 minute consultation to speak to one of our property consultants.
In this initial discussion you’ll help us to understand the seriousness of your intent about moving forward with your property plans and to see if we’re the right fit for each other.