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Or for those that prefer to read, here is a transcript of the video…
Hi, my name is Colin Fragar from Council Approval Group. And today I’d really like to talk to you about what are the secondary dwelling requirements and what do you need to know? What are some of the loopholes? What are some of the tips and tricks around designing a secondary dwelling?
Why a Secondary Dwelling?
So if you’re looking at a secondary dwelling you’re obviously looking to maximize your property. You’re probably looking to add an extra layer of income for you and your family. And just at this early stage, before we jump into the requirements, I’d really like to encourage you to keep going because a secondary dwelling income can be the difference between financial security and one of anxiety. And it’s one that my wife and I have gone through. We’ve gone through both ends. We’ve gone through struggling to pay a mortgage to now being able to have our mortgage paid for us by a secondary dwelling.Your Ultimate Guide to Council Approval
So when you’re looking at the requirements for a secondary dwelling, some of the things that I recommend you look at are contained, actually, in Your Ultimate Guide to Council Approval. Make sure you grab your copy, it’s complimentary and we can pop it in the post to you. Some of the most important things that you’ll probably learn in property development will be in the guide. And I highly recommend that for you today.Secondary Dwelling Requirements
But in terms of the requirements, obviously, a secondary dwelling needs to be associated with a principal dwelling. So that means you can’t have a granny flat or a secondary dwelling on a separate piece of land. That’s one important thing. The second thing is that you’re usually restricted by floor area. Third, you are also restricted by where it can be placed on the site. There are minimum setbacks – rear, side, and front setbacks and things like that.Secondary Dwelling Car Parking Tip
One thing you may not know is that a secondary dwelling does not need to have car accommodation. Now, this is an awesome trick, because it can lower the cost of approval and it can lower the cost of construction. But also that can mean, if you play it well, that you can get your car accommodation done easier. So I’ll just show you a little trick here. I’m going to shift over to my notepad and just show you what my wife and I did recently on one of our own personal properties.Personal Example
Now we’ve done thousands of these for clients but we also try to walk the talk. And one of the things that we did was we had a property with an existing house and added a secondary dwelling. Interestingly, the principal dwelling was only 80 square meters, the secondary one was 60 square meters. Now, we didn’t propose the carport. And the reason why we didn’t propose a carport is we know that in this local government area, it requires pavement or requires concrete. So we tried to get around that rule and actually succeeded in it. Instead of having to put a driveway in, which was probably going to cost us $20,000, used the loophole of not needing a carport when you build this secondary dwelling. So what that requirement loophole allows you to do is then build a carport after it was built. So we built the secondary dwelling and then we built the carport under what they called the exempt provisions, meaning we didn’t need approval. As a result, we saved $20,000 in construction.Don’t rely on builders who may not have as much expertise, particularly in these kinds of loopholes, these tips and tricks, because we want to get the best possible outcome for you and your family.
Work With the Experts
Whatever the requirements are, there’s a lot of different things like that which we can help you to navigate around. And it’s really important to get one-on-one advice. Don’t try to be able to do this yourself. Don’t rely on builders who may not have as much expertise, particularly in these kinds of loopholes, these tips and tricks, because we want to get the best possible outcome for you and your family. So what I would like to do is to recommend to you not only to get our guide, which is available on our website but to also book in for a consultation. So this consultation is a 30-minute consultation. We can go through some of the challenges you’re facing, the questions you have, and then present to you a logical first step and a clear roadmap for you to create this secondary dwelling.Hopefully, that helps with the secondary dwelling requirements. Please book in for a consultation and we’ll talk to you soon.