Randwick City Council
Private building certifier in Randwick
CertifiBuild certifies houses, semis and Class 10 work in Randwick. Owners often meet heritage first, since this suburb has more conservation area land than anywhere else Randwick City Council covers.
NSW 2031
Class 1 homes and Class 10 structures
Local rules
Heritage streets, a racecourse and big campuses
Named after an English town
Simeon Henry Pearce, who arrived in the colony in 1842, gave the suburb the name of Randwick in Gloucestershire. Coogee's village was gazetted, but Randwick's never was. In 1858 an asylum for destitute children opened on Avoca Street. Those sandstone buildings now belong to Prince of Wales Hospital. Flats dominate the housing, while houses and semis cluster in the older streets.
Heritage over a third of the land
Roughly 37% of Randwick falls in conservation areas, a higher share than any other suburb council manages. About 16% falls in the Racecourse area, and North Randwick around 6%. More come from The Spot, St Jude's, Randwick Junction and High Cross. Fifteen items here are on the State Heritage Register, among them the old post office and the Ritz Theatre.
Precinct chapters that take priority
Randwick's Development Control Plan (DCP, council's detailed design rules) has one chapter for the racecourse and another for the university and hospitals precinct. Where either conflicts with the general controls, it wins. Medium density zoning covers around 35% of the suburb, low density around 19%.
Typical work
Common projects and how they get approved
What owners build here
Our Randwick work is mostly on older houses and semis, often inside a conservation area. Typical jobs include:
- Alterations inside and additions at the rear of period houses and semis, shaped by heritage controls from the start.
- Swimming pools, sheds and covered outdoor rooms behind freestanding houses.
- Dual occupancies under the state housing rules on land zoned low density residential.
- Garages and carports where a rear lane or wide frontage gives access.
The many flats, plus the university and hospital buildings, belong to other building classes. A certifier holding registration for the relevant class must take those jobs.
How approval usually works
Conservation areas limit what a CDC (fast-track approval under state rules) can do, so many Randwick jobs need a development application (DA) first. Timing matters too. Stage 2 of the Randwick DCP 2025 came into force on 27 July 2026. An undecided application lodged before then is generally judged under the plan in force before Stage 2. That saving does not extend to proposals using the state's rules for co-living or affordable housing, or the state's low and mid-rise homes policy. For housing density, the state rules exclude heritage items but say nothing about conservation areas. They also exclude bushfire prone land and coastal vulnerability areas. Before lodging, confirm which chapter and heritage layer cover your lot. CertifiBuild untangles that layering early so your designer works to the right document.
Our services
From approval to sign-off.
One certifier for your whole Randwick job, from the first plan check to the occupation certificate.
Local questions
Questions we hear about this suburb.
No two lots in Randwick are the same. Give us your address and we will check every map that affects it.
See the council pageIs Royal Randwick Racecourse on the State Heritage Register?
No, the track has no State Heritage Register listing. Randwick’s development control plan (DCP) calls the racecourse a landscape of State cultural importance, yet that phrase describes its value and is not a formal listing. Legal protection comes from council instead. The Racecourse heritage conservation area, roughly 16% of Randwick’s land, takes in the site, and one local heritage item covers the Official Stand and the Members’ Stand. For a home near the track, check whether your own lot sits inside that conservation area, because that, not the racecourse’s status, shapes your project.
Is a dual occupancy possible inside a Randwick conservation area?
Possibly, yes. The state’s low and mid-rise housing rules exclude heritage items, but conservation areas are not on the excluded list, which matters in a suburb where roughly 37% of land is conservation area. Exclusions do apply to bushfire prone land and coastal vulnerability areas. You also need suitable zoning, such as low density residential, and Randwick’s heritage controls will still guide bulk, materials and how the pair presents to the street. Look up the zone, the heritage layers and any excluded land mapping, then brief your designer before drawings go too far.
Which Randwick plan applies if I lodged before July 2026?
Generally the earlier plan, provided council had not yet decided your application. Stage 2 of the Randwick DCP 2025 took effect on 27 July 2026, and a savings rule lets undecided applications from before that date be assessed as though Stage 2 had not started. The saving does not cover proposals relying on the state’s co-living, affordable housing or low and mid-rise housing rules. Those are judged against the 2025 development control plan (DCP) whatever the lodgement date. Check your lodgement record and which state policy, if any, your proposal relies on.
Building in this suburb?
Send us the address first.
We check the local maps for your lot, confirm the approval path and quote in writing.