Buyer's Guide · Australia-Wide
Secondary dwelling approval doesn't work the same way in every state. Some run a fast-tracked, state-wide policy; others leave it entirely to your local council. Here's the actual structure in each — and why you should always confirm current specifics locally.
Broadly, Australian states take one of two approaches to secondary dwellings. Some run a state-wide planning policy that sets consistent criteria and fast-tracks approval when a proposal meets them. Others leave assessment entirely to individual local council planning schemes, which can vary meaningfully from one council to the next even within the same state. Neither approach changes the building code — NCC Class 1A certification means exactly the same thing everywhere in Australia — but the planning pathway to get there is genuinely different.
New South Wales runs one of the more streamlined state-wide frameworks: its Housing State Environmental Planning Policy allows many secondary dwellings meeting set criteria to be approved as complying development, without a full council development application. Current size limits and eligibility criteria are periodically updated — always confirm on the NSW Planning Portal.
Victoria assesses residential development, including a second dwelling on a lot, through its state-wide ResCode framework (Clause 54/55 of planning schemes), with a VicSmart fast-track pathway available for some straightforward applications. The framework is consistent across councils; specific thresholds are set within each council's planning scheme.
Queensland has no single state-wide fast-track scheme for secondary dwellings — assessment happens under each local council's own planning scheme, which is why our location pages link directly to the specific council for wherever you're building, rather than quoting one set of rules for the whole state.
Western Australia assesses residential development, including what WA planning policy calls an "ancillary dwelling", through the state-wide Residential Design Codes (the R-Codes) applied by each local government.
South Australia assesses development under its unified Planning and Design Code, a single state-wide code (replacing the old council-by-council development plans) applied through South Australia's ePlanning system.
Tasmania operates under a single statewide planning scheme structure (the Tasmanian Planning Scheme), which standardised what used to be dozens of separate council schemes into one common set of provisions applied locally.
Northern Territory and ACT each have their own planning frameworks with their own approach to secondary dwellings — the NT Planning Scheme and the ACT's Territory Plan respectively — both worth checking directly given how much less commonly they come up in general guides like this one.
Why we don't quote specific numbers here
Size limits, setback distances and assessment categories change with policy updates and vary by individual council even within a state-wide framework. Rather than publish specific figures that can go out of date, we point you to the authoritative source — your council or state planning portal — every time. It's a five-minute check that avoids planning for a number that changed six months ago.
Whichever state you're in, the same underlying question decides everything: is the dwelling certified NCC Class 1A? That national building classification — not the planning pathway used to approve it — is what makes a secondary dwelling insurable, financeable and treated as a real, permanent asset. The Forge 12 is certified to that standard regardless of which state it's delivered to.
FAQ
Yes, significantly. Some states (like NSW) run a state-wide planning policy that fast-tracks secondary dwellings meeting set criteria, while others (like Queensland) leave assessment entirely to each local council's own planning scheme, with no single statewide fast-track pathway.
NSW is generally considered to have the most streamlined state-wide framework, through its Housing SEPP, which allows many secondary dwellings meeting set criteria to be approved as complying development without a full development application. Current criteria and thresholds should always be confirmed with the NSW Planning Portal or your local council, as they are periodically updated.
Yes — the National Construction Code is a national standard, so Class 1A certification means the same thing everywhere in Australia. What varies by state and council is the planning approval pathway to get a secondary dwelling assessed and approved in the first place, not the building code standard itself.
Your local council's planning scheme or local environmental plan is the authoritative source, since it's updated independently of general guides like this one. Our location pages link directly to the official council website for every Queensland town and region we deliver to.
On display in Rockhampton — delivered across Queensland
Every Queensland location page we publish links straight to the official council planning page for that area.