What the Low and Mid-Rise Housing Reforms Let You Build on Your Block

New South Wales has changed what can be built on ordinary residential land, and the change does not appear anywhere in your council's Local Environmental Plan. It sits in a State Environmental Planning Policy that overrides the LEP, which is why plenty of owners are still being told their block is single-dwelling land.

What actually changed

The Low and Mid-Rise Housing reforms allow dual occupancies, terraces, manor houses and, in the mid-rise catchments, residential flat buildings on land councils had zoned for houses. Where the policy applies it operates as a state-wide override of the LEP prohibition. Your council's own rules did not need to change for this to take effect.

The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has estimated the reforms could unlock in the order of 112,000 homes across Greater Sydney, the Hunter, the Central Coast and the Illawarra-Shoalhaven over five years.

The 800 metre catch

This is where most people get the answer wrong. A property is in a low and mid rise housing area if it is within 800 metres WALKING DISTANCE of a town centre or a listed station, not 800 metres as the crow flies.

That distinction decides real cases. A block 600 metres across a rail corridor with no crossing can easily be a 1.4 kilometre walk, and it is out. A block on a through street at 780 metres of footpath is in. If you have measured this with a radius on a map, you have not measured it.

The standards that come with it

Where a dual occupancy is permitted under the policy, the non-discretionary development standards set the floor: a minimum lot size of 450 square metres, a minimum lot width of 12 metres, a floor space ratio of 0.65:1 and a maximum height of 9.5 metres. A consent authority cannot refuse on those grounds where you meet them.

Subdivision is a separate question again. Where it is available, each resulting lot must be at least 225 square metres, the lots cannot be battle-axe, and the consent has to have been granted on or after 28 February 2025.

Why the LEP still matters

The override is specific. It does not switch off heritage items, bushfire-prone land, flood controls or foreshore provisions, and it does not touch restrictions registered on your title. An 88B Instrument limiting the land to one dwelling will defeat the policy entirely, and no planning approval will fix that.

The practical position for most owners is that three things have to line up: the policy applies to the land, the standards can be met, and nothing on title or in the hazard mapping prevents it.

What to check

Start with whether the property is in a low and mid rise housing area, measured on walking distance rather than radius. Then check the lot dimensions against the non-discretionary standards. Then read the title, because the covenant question is the one that most often stops a project the planning system would otherwise allow.

Our free property snapshot returns the zone and constraints from an address, and the NSW Planning Insight reads the applicable controls for the specific thing you are proposing.