Townhouse certification in NSW

Where can I build townhouses now?

From 28 February 2025, state planning rules have permitted townhouses and terraces, with approval, in the R2 zone (Low Density Residential) within low and mid rise housing areas. Those areas cover residential zones up to an 800 metre walk from a nominated train, metro or light rail station or town centre. In R1 and R3 zones, townhouses were already permitted.

Within those areas, council cannot refuse terraces on these grounds where the lot measures at least 500 square metres and is 18 metres wide. Floor space ratio is capped at 0.7:1, and height is limited to 9.5 metres. Other townhouse layouts need a lot of 600 square metres that is 12 metres wide. For terrace subdivision, each new lot needs a minimum of 165 square metres and 6 metres of width. Strata subdivision is not included.

Can I use the fast-track route?

Beyond those areas, the state rules still let terraces proceed by CDC (a faster approval from a private certifier), provided council permits townhouses. You must supply a design verification statement prepared by a registered architect or an accredited building designer.

Since July 2025, the NSW Housing Pattern Book has offered pre-designed terraces and row homes with their own fast-track route. Other layouts generally need a development application (DA) to council.

When does a townhouse become an apartment building?

A townhouse is Class 1a when it forms part of a row of attached homes divided by fire-resisting walls. Under the building code, a Class 1 home cannot sit over or under another home or a different building class, with a private garage the only exception.

This matters for basement parking. If attached single storey homes share any space below them, such as a shared basement car park, they become Class 2. That applies even if the space does not count as a storey. A loft, studio or flat over or under another home has the same effect.

Our certification covers Class 1 and Class 10 buildings only. For a Class 2 design you will need a certifier whose registration covers that class. Settle the class before DA plans are finalised so you avoid a redesign.

Can people move in one stage at a time?

Yes. NSW allows a partial occupation certificate for part of an unfinished building. It lets people live in only the finished part it covers.

Before issuing it, the principal certifier must be satisfied of three things. The finished part is fit to use for its building class. Any consent conditions due first are met. Unfinished work does not put residents' health and safety at risk. In practice, this often depends on how the work zone is separated from occupied homes, and whether their access and services are complete. Each later stage, and the finished development, needs its own certificate.

What changes if the design becomes Class 2?

A shared basement or a stacked home does more than move the project to another certifier. Class 2 buildings are regulated buildings under NSW's Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020. Class 1 townhouses sit outside that scheme, which in NSW currently regulates Class 2, 3 and 9c buildings.

Inside the scheme, design practitioners, building practitioners and professional engineers must be registered to make compliance declarations or carry out professional engineering work. Regulated designs and design compliance declarations must reach the certifier before a construction certificate (CC) or complying development certificate (CDC) is issued, and the regulated designs are uploaded to the NSW Planning Portal before construction starts on site.

At handover, the building compliance declaration and any as-built designs go onto the Portal ahead of the application for an occupation certificate (OC). No OC can be issued until every declaration is in. These added steps are one more reason to fix the building class at sketch stage.

Who vouches for the design quality?

Terraces approved by CDC under Part 3B of the Codes SEPP need a design verification statement with the application. Only two kinds of professional can sign it. One is a registered architect. The other is a building designer with accreditation from the national association for building designers.

Where terraces or manor houses are lodged with council as a development application (DA), the state's design guide for low rise housing is used until that council adopts its own development control plan (DCP). The guide is an assessment tool for DAs. It is not a CDC control.

In a CDC, the certifier tests the plans against the code's measurable standards and the NCC (National Construction Code). The judgement on design quality rests with whoever signs the verification statement, so involve that person from the first sketches, not as a last step before lodging.

Sydney Water and a townhouse site

Sydney Water lists medium density, multi-unit residential development among the projects it refers for a Section 73 compliance certificate. The consent authority makes the final call on referral, so check your consent conditions for it.

Titles bring a second referral. Subdivision by Torrens, community, strata or stratum title is also on the list, so selling the townhouses on separate titles puts the project in front of Sydney Water again.

Building plans are checked against Sydney Water's pipes and structures as well. Sydney Water insists on full access to its maintenance structures, and none may be enclosed by a building without approval given through the Section 73 process. Have the surveyor plot every sewer line and maintenance hole before the row is set out.

Pattern Book townhouses and terraces

The NSW Housing Pattern Book offers eight designs covering terraces, townhouses and manor houses, endorsed by the NSW Government Architect. A complying development pathway for these patterns began on 30 July 2025.

The government says building can start within ten days of an application, but only once all appropriate assessments are complete. Picking a pattern still leaves the building class to be confirmed. The tests described above still apply, so any pattern with one home over another, or with a shared space beneath the homes, is Class 2, which calls for a certifier holding that registration. A pattern laid out as a simple row with no stacking can stay within Class 1.