In this video, Colin Fragar, our founder and CEO, discusses whether you can get council approval for a shipping container granny flat.
Click on the “Play” button below to watch now:
Or for those that prefer to read, here is a transcript of the video…
Okay, will a granny flat in a shipping container get approval? My name is Colin Fragar from Council Approval Group. So today, I really want to share with you some thoughts about using shipping containers and the council approval process.
Why a Shipping Container?
Now if you’re thinking about shipping containers, first of all, I’d ask you to take a step back and ask, why are you considering shipping containers? Okay, so one of the advantages may be, you can buy this refurbished shipping container from a manufacturer that does it and you could just put them straight on your side. And you just connect up the sewer and you connect up the electricity and Bob’s your uncle, to use an Australian expression.Consider Rental Return
But what I would ask you to think about is, is that going to be the one with the highest rental return that you can receive? Who are the people that want to live in a shipping container? So are you’re going to get the rent that you could get if you were to otherwise produce a nice place to live? I’m not saying that shipping containers are not nice, but just think about how it might be perceived.Is Shipping Container Approval Easier?
Also people think that a shipping container will be an easy path to council approval. And actually what I encourage my staff to advise people is that we’ve done thousands of granny flats and when somebody wants to do a shipping container granny flat councils usually don’t favor them. Yes, there’s an environmental factor. But what trumps the environmental factor usually is just the way that it looks and fits in the streetscape and the character of the area. Often, it’s just as much work if not more work to get the approval in place for a shipping container.Take the Next Step
I don’t want to put a dampener in your enthusiasm here because you might be onto something. So please book in a consultation to speak to one of our team.It can certainly be done but just in a certain limited number of cases and there may be something better that we can do for you. Maybe it’s not even a granny flat. Maybe we can get in there a dual occupancy, subdivision or something better or larger that would rent for premium price.If you’re just kind of thinking and developing ideas at the moment, then what I’d best recommend is Your Ultimate Guide Council Approval. It goes through a bunch of different thoughts here on granny flats, the approval process, and things that you that might help you in making a decision about a shipping container and granny flats.
If, however, you do have an exact property you’d like us to have a look at we can make an assessment based on:
- Is it the best development outcome for you?
- Is there something better that we can achieve for you?
- What’s the quickest and fastest way to approval and what’s the chances of success?