top of page

Thinking Dual Occupancy or Property Subdivision?

Talk to the real  experts in Melbourne

  • AuArchitecture are the dual occupancy and property subdivision professionals in Victoria.

  • We can help you subdivide your land or design and dual occupancy your home.

  • Our founder has assessed, managed the design and planning process from start to finish for over 250 planning permits across Victoria.

  • What else can we say- experience talks results.

 

Invest in my experience.

Dual Occupancy and Property subdivision design and planning experts in Melbourne

 

 

                 PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE 

                    www.auarchitecture.com.au

 

                         The Property Design  +

              Subdivision experts in Melbourne

Dual occupancy property subdivision success

How does the Dual Occupancy Work flow from Design to Town Planning Permit

Dual occupancy design and town planning workflow
What are the investment benefits of a Dual Occupancy Vs a Non Dual Occupancy
WHY NOT DUAL OCC

This image  and text is an extract from David Shaw CPA

 

This is an extract from a Certified Practicing Accountant- David Shaw.

It shows the cash positive opportunities a dual offers for a retiree or a first home investor.

 

One of the most significant and positive development I have seen during my 4000 interviews over the past 10 years is the dual occupancy property.  The dual occupancy is simply a property with two sources of income.  Some Local Councils will allow a 3 bedroom and a 2 or 1 bedroom apartment to be constructed on the one property.   Returns for both the short and long term are superior and this assists tax payers with the recurring question of “how can I make my property positively geared?”
 
Dual occupancy gives superior cash flow because of the two sources of income. Upon analysis of this, I discovered the following:

 

 

Cashflow:

  • A typical dual occupancy property purchased at $550,000 can almost be positively geared from Day 1.   That is, with a purchase price of $550,000 the combined rental can be $670 per week as opposed to a non-dual occupancy property at the same price at $550 per week. This additional $120 per week means that after 20 years of holding the property even if the property pays off no debt it will still yield twice the cash flow return.

Levels of debt

 
Because the dual occupancy delivers a superior cash flow you actually need less of these properties in retirement to achieve the same result. In the example used above, if you were to purchase 3 of these properties today with a 5% rental growth over the next 20 years without paying off any debt, you would generate a positive cash flow of $114,081 per annum. If a $550,000 non-dual occupancy property was purchased with the same rental growth you would need 6 of these properties to develop the same cash flow.
 
Therefore, with a dual occupancy property you take on half the debt and achieve the same long term cash flow.

 

 

Please learn more at our knowledge bank at www.auarchitecture.com.au

Melbourne

Call 0448170132 for expert advice on property subdivision

               Dual Occupancy and Property Subdivision 

 

 

 

Our Dual Occupancy Property Subdivision Success Story
 

 Our experience goes back to the 1990's when we did our first very successful Dual Occupancy  Property Subdivision in a neighbourhood totally averse to any sort of property subdivision- even a dual occupancy!. We faced many of the same town planning issues then as they  as exist today- from complex Council planning policies and controls, heritage issues, impact on  vegetation, neighbourhood character, adverse impact on amenties, drainage controls, strong objections, presentation to full Councillors meeting and so on. We won a Planning approval for the first dual occupancy and that success rate fever carried on to some 250 town planning approvals across all Melbourne Councils in the last few years which I worked on, managed  for client!

 

Contact us as we at AuArchitecture can help you subdivide your property in any of the suburbs across Melbourne and regional areas like Geelong, Macedon Ranges, Ballarat and others.

 

My unrivalled planning approval success is based on   humility, honesty, clever design and architecture, town planning in depth knowledge, planning strategy and implementation followed by  negotation skills, knowing what Melbourne Council's and VCAT  want and culminating in managing the entire planning application  process effectively with a view to obtaining great results for the property owners.  That means from subdivision analysis to planning approval. If you want to proceed to building, I can help with my support team of Registered professionals and a Master builder. Thats a cradle to completion project.

 

I  have worked on and obtained multiple town planning permits  for dual occupancy ,triple occupancy and townhouse/unit developments from Melbourne Metropolitan Councils, including  Banyule, Bayside, Boroondara, Brimbank, Cardinia, Casey, Darebin, Frankston, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong, Hobsons Bay, Hume, Kingston, Knox, Manningham, Maribyrnong, Maroondah, Melton, Monash, Moonee Valley, Moreland, Mornington Peninsula, Nillumbik,  Stonnington, Whitehorse, Whittlesea, Wyndham, Yarra and Yarra Ranges Planning Schemes to name a few.

 

Going back to the first dual occupancy subdivision, we renovated the existing house and  sold it for four times our purchase price when the average property doubled in value over seven years! That still left us with about 400sqm of land on which we got approval for a second dwelling which was then sold for over $800,000.

 

 Renovation adds tremendous value to older style houses. As owner builder, we opened up the rooms to make a more spacious living and family area. And having been trained in architecture helped in design and planning.

 The new kitchen with its breakfast sun room created a wow feeling which in turn opened  onto the deck we built and the backyard which was fully landscaped.

 

 We added two skylights to bathe the living area with natural light- a tip I suggest you adopt if your family and living areas are dark.

 

 We gutted both the bathrooms and added floor to ceiling marble titles to one bathroom which had its handmade marble bathtub and custom built free standing double shower.

 

 We added WRC timber lined ceilings instead of the normal plasterboard- a small extra cost but a great result.

 The tap fittings were an issue- they were the ones I saw in New York (MoMA) but to get a local plumber to adjust the copper pipe sizes to suit the existing house pipes were a challenge. But we did it and to this day I feel it was the bathrooms and well lit living areas  that helped sell  the original home which was built in the 1950s.

 

 Next came the dual occupancy planning application.

 

 Our neighbours were up in arms- WHAT! a dual occ in our neighbourhood was the common war cry. Not near my backyard was the common theme.

 

 And to make matters worse we had a huge tree in the middle of the developable portion of the  land and that tree had a heritage listing!

 

 Then came the neighbour with his grand Victorian mansion who just could not come to terms with a development in a blue chip locality!

 

 I later ended up  doing the Development plans for his land which was the first mansion with its own cricket pitch and of course the pool and tennis court.

 

The dual occ plans went through its motions and ended up in front of a full Council meeting.

 

 And despite the planning officer not supporting the Application I managed to get the majoriity of the Councillors vote in my favour. So that was the first home investment for me and an introduction on the politics and policies of town planning. Invest in my experience if you too are thinking dual occupancy subdivision for your home or property.

 

 That experience has been my faithful friend in some rather difficult and challenging planning applications I submitted or managed on behalf of myself or clients over the years. One problematic application I inherited had a confusing and complex Design Development Overlay (DDO) which restricted the type of development and the design of that development. It attracted some 82 objections and the full set of Councillors from the Mayor down unanimously agreed to refuse the application. Through sheer persistence and hard working strategythe decision was  appealed at VCAT and  I was up against a top tier planning law firm's partner. After a few gruelling days of argument a planning approval was granted by the VCAT Member! I now see that same DDO has been simplified!

 

The first dual occupancy home was double storey with  three bedrooms, double garage and wore a traditional colonial facade in keeping with the neighbourhood which were dotted with heritage homes. Prior to that design I approached Hebel which was a new material in Australia  to see if they would partner my development. My German associate was instrumental in setting up their first plant and I was amazed to see how aerated concrete planks with reo dipped in hot plastic was baked in "ovens" and rose like bread!

 

 The dual occupancy permit was followed by a two lot  property subdivision.

 

 We had to remove some massive  trees along the driveway much to the dismay of the neighbours. We had to install all the services including onsite detention system  where we were the early adopters of Water Sensitive Urban Design rather than build huge concrete tanks (OSD) or pipes which was beyond our budget!

 

 The sale of our First Home Investment- a dual occupancy- created other development opportunities. Another dual living home which was even more challenging to obtain planning approval for as the land was on Environmentally Sensitive Zone!

 

I owner built it and the complex engineering- 6m deep screw pile foundations-was a test of perserverance.Thankfully my basic engineering education at University helped.

 

 Then followed rezoning approval from the Planning Minister's office for a boutique apartment development and so the story continues leading to major commercial and industrial projects where I managed the design and development process and successful negotiations with the authorities.

 

Today that experience has helped me secure over 250 planning approvals across Victoria.

 

I would like to share that  experience and knowledge to  make your property subdivision a real success- be it a dual occ in your backyard or multi unit developments.

 

www. auarchitecture.com.au

 

Feel free to call me on 0448 170 132 and start off with what you want to develop and where so we come to the point quickly!

 

Thank you for reading this success story on how to subdivide your property be it a home ot a large development site.

Thank you for visiting us. We encourage you to ask for your Free! site analysis .
Head out to our parent website AuArchitecture for your dual occupancy property subdivision answers and Ask for a Free Development Opinion. We tell you your chances of success at No Cost to you!
bottom of page