Inner West
Private building certifier in the Strathfield Council area
Throughout the Strathfield council area, CertifiBuild certifies house work and outbuildings. Heritage is the key local issue. Your own home may not be listed. Even so, a listed property nearby, such as next door, can bring heritage assessment into your project.
Local plan
Strathfield Local Environmental Plan 2012
Bushfire prone land
None mapped
Flood planning
Council mapped
Heritage areas
17 HCAs
Most building activity right now
All 5 Strathfield suburbs, ranked by building work
Ranked by ABS building approvals for new homes, duplexes, townhouses and renovations over the 12 months to August 2026. Choose a suburb for its local guide.
Local rules
What shapes approvals here.
Heritage can reach beyond your own lot
The Strathfield Local Environmental Plan 2012 (LEP) has 17 heritage conservation areas and roughly 231 heritage items. Heritage assessment applies to listed items and to sites inside a conservation area. It also applies to work near a heritage item. So your home might not be listed yet still face a heritage assessment. This often comes as a surprise to owners.
Which design rules apply to you?
The detailed design rules here are spread across several documents. A Development Control Plan (DCP) from 2005 still exists. Its housing sections were replaced by a separate residential plan. Five more site-specific DCPs cover named places, including the town centre and land along Parramatta Road. Homebush also has controls for a precinct of transport oriented development. The first job is to work out which document covers your address.
Rebuilds and second storeys
Strathfield has large Federation and interwar lots. Owners often look at a knockdown rebuild or a second storey. On conservation area land, a complying development certificate (CDC) is generally not available for house work. That means a development application (DA) to council instead. Beyond those areas, a CDC can be an option where the design complies with the state code.
Mostly houses and apartments
At the 2021 Census, only 5.3% of dwellings were semi-detached. Most homes are either apartments or detached houses. Strathfield South is the most house-heavy suburb in the council, so detached house work is common there.
Send us your survey, plans and council planning certificate. We will check nearby heritage items before your design is locked in.
Local know-how
Strathfield suburb by suburb: what to check first
Strathfield
For Strathfield's low density land, floor space ratio is worked out on a sliding scale rather than read off a map. That ratio is floor area compared with site area. Bigger lots get a lower ratio. It is 0.65:1 under 500 square metres and falls in steps to 0.50:1 once a lot reaches 1,000 square metres. Dual occupancies need 800 square metres in a mapped area and 560 elsewhere. The busy station brings no station-based housing uplift of its own.
Strathfield South
Strathfield South pairs older houses with a large industrial zone. New residential controls began on 1 September 2026. Houses and dual occupancies now need 30% landscaped area where the lot is 750 square metres or smaller. Larger lots need 35%. Separate deep soil minimums of 25% and 30% apply. Front setbacks now follow the average of nearby houses rather than a fixed figure. Numbers taken from the superseded plan no longer apply. Homes next to industrial land may need a contamination check.
Homebush
Beyond the transport precinct, Homebush retains a pocket of houses, many of them inside the conservation area around Abbotsford Road. No flood planning map covers Homebush. Council decides flood-affected land case by case, and only the planning certificate answers it. A flood control lot cannot use a CDC, the code-based approval. So we read the certificate before advising on any route.
Homebush West
Flats make up about 92% of homes in Homebush West, and few houses remain. For those, carports, decks and outbuildings can often follow the code route. Normal setback and site coverage limits still apply. Flemington is a named locality that sits inside Homebush West, not a suburb, and that matters when records are matched to a lot.
Why owners and builders in Strathfield pick CertifiBuild
CertifiBuild deals only with homes and Class 10 structures, so knockdown rebuilds, extensions and pools are our core work. We work out the floor space, lot size and setback figures for your lot while plans can still be adjusted. We follow Strathfield's recent DCP changes closely. Builders get prompt answers, and inspections are arranged around the build program rather than holding it up.
Suburbs we cover
All 5 suburbs in Strathfield
We certify homes and Class 10 structures in every suburb listed. Some suburbs cross council boundaries, so we always confirm the council on your planning certificate.
- Greenacre
- Homebush
- Homebush West
- Strathfield
- Strathfield South
Nearby council areas
Neighbouring councils we cover.
Building near a council boundary, or planning another project close by? Each neighbouring council page explains its own local rules.
Our services
From approval to sign-off.
One certifier for the whole job, whichever council your lot is in.
Local questions
Questions we hear in this area.
No two lots are alike. Share your address and we will review the maps that cover it.
All council areasMy home is not on a heritage list. Why would heritage apply?
Because in Strathfield, heritage rules reach beyond listed homes. The local environmental plan (LEP) also calls for heritage assessment when you build near a heritage item, so a listed house beside you or across the street can bring your project under review. With 17 conservation areas and about 231 listed items across the council, this catches many owners off guard. It does not stop your project, but your designer should consider how the work looks next to that neighbour. We look up nearby items for your address before your design is locked in.
Could a new house in Strathfield South qualify for a CDC?
Yes, it can, if no conservation area covers the lot and the house satisfies the state code. Strathfield South is the most house-heavy suburb in the council, so new homes and rebuilds are common. New local residential controls started on 1 September 2026, with landscaped area and deep soil minimums, so make sure any figures are current if you end up lodging a development application (DA). Homes next to the industrial zone may also need a contamination check. We look for nearby heritage items too, while the plans are still flexible.
Do Homebush properties have different rules?
Some do. Part of Homebush falls within a precinct for transport oriented development, which has its own controls separate from the usual house rules. Outside that precinct, Homebush keeps a pocket of houses, many in the conservation area around Abbotsford Road, where heritage assessment applies. No flood planning map exists for Homebush, so council decides flood-affected land case by case and only your planning certificate gives the answer. A flood control lot there cannot use the code-based route. We read the certificate and confirm the right plan before reviewing your design.
Building in this area?
Send us the address first.
We check the local maps for your lot, confirm the approval path and quote in writing.