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Two homes, one lot

Two homes on one lot, from the street to the back fence

This is a guide to building and living with a second, smaller home on the same lot as a house, published by Dotto. It walks one suburban block from the footpath to the back fence and stops wherever the rules for that second home come into play: the letterbox, the meter box, the path, the side fence, the back corner and the rooms inside.

It covers New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and every rule carries the name of its state. General information, not legal, planning or building advice: your council and the state bodies linked on each page decide what applies to your lot.

A small timber cabin with a grey roof and a covered porch with outdoor seating and red geraniums, on a lawn under a large tree
A small timber home with a covered porch, on a lawn. Photo by ArmbrustAnna on Pixabay.

Six stops on one lot

The drawing is a lot seen from above, with the street along the top. Each letter is a place on the block where a rule for the second home lands, and each opens a guide.

STREETNABCDEF
Drawn for this guide; not to scale and not to any state’s rules. The dimension lines carry no figures on purpose: the numbers for a real lot come from the rules that apply to it.
  • At the letterbox. Rates, bins and street numbers: How each state values the lot for council rates, and what the council and the utilities settle.
  • At the meter box. Renting it out: Why a shared meter decides who pays the water and power, and the alarms to fit before a tenant moves in.
  • Along the path. Small second dwellings in Victoria: The path from the street, the setbacks and the open space Victoria’s building rules ask for.
  • At the side fence. Granny flats in NSW: The measurements a NSW granny flat must fit to be approved as complying development.
  • At the back corner. Secondary dwellings in Queensland: Who approves and inspects the build, and when a tiny home on wheels becomes a house.
  • Inside the second home. Building rules that still apply: Approval, inspections, the final certificate and smoke alarms, state by state.

One building, three names

The small home at the back of the drawing goes by a different official name in each state, and the name is the word to search for on that state’s pages.

NSWA “secondary dwelling”, or granny flat: a self-contained dwelling inside, attached to, or separate from another dwelling on the same site. The planning department says a lot with one cannot be subdivided, and the result can only be one principal dwelling and one secondary dwelling.

VictoriaA “small second dwelling”, which the planning department also calls a small second home: up to 60 square metres, with a kitchen, bathroom and toilet, on the same lot as an existing home. It cannot be subdivided or sold off separately from the main home.

QueenslandA “secondary dwelling”, used with and secondary to another dwelling on the same lot, and commonly known as a granny flat. The planning department says it cannot be developed by itself. It sets it apart from a dual occupancy, which is two dwellings that may be of a similar size.

Two homes of equal size are a different approval with their own rules. In NSW, for example, dual occupancies built as complying development come under the Low-Rise Housing Diversity Code, which the planning department’s complying development page describes. This guide stays with the smaller second home.

How to read the measurements

Where a guide gives a number, such as a floor area, a setback or a deadline, it was read on the official page when this guide was checked, it is dated to that month, and the sources are listed at the foot of each guide. Planning and building rules are amended often, and two of the states covered here had changes under way when this guide was written, so check the official page before relying on a figure.

The guides follow the walk in the drawing. Start at the letterbox if the second home already exists and the questions are about rates and tenants; start at the side fence or the path if it is still a plan on paper.