First development - 3 townhouses SE Melbourne

South East Melbourne is a great opportunity for this type of project.

I'm currently getting plans drawn up for a 3 Townhouse subdivision development, also in the South East. Looks like I'll be able to get them all as 3 bedroom size.

 

We have now received council approval for our draft plans so now proceeding to complete the feature plan and submit the application.

Unfortunately one of the 4 bedroom T/H's had to reduce down to a 3 bed for council so now in total there is a smaller 3/2/1 bed, larger 3 bed 3/2/2, largest 4,3,2.
This will reduce the likely sale price of the middle size unit to around the $650k mark.

Floorplans as per attached. Still need to make some small tweaks to the internal walls in particular unit 3 as it heads to architectural plans but these will be pretty close.

Any further hints to maximise usage of space would be appreciated

Thanks

 

Do you mean you've had a pre submission meeting(s) and council have indicated that it's on the right path? I've never heard of an approval before submission. So be prepared they may still find issues with it when they fully assess it.

My thoughts on the design - which I understand with developments you have to compromise and there is never a perfect solution. I can't see dimensions as the plans are too blurry so I am commenting just visually.

Who does the POS in the middle of all 3 units belong to? There seems to be windows from all 3 facing it so I can't work out who it belongs to and where the boundaries are. I suspect that it belongs to Units 2 and 3 and if so I don't understand how/why Unit 1 has windows to it.

Unit 1:
- bed 1 master bedroom is very awkward, I don't see where you'd put the bed so it needs tweaking. I would swap the wardrobe to be along the opposite wall that the door opens onto. Yes it will be smaller but then you have a full unobsctructed wall for a bed and bedsides to go onto
- why is there a basin in the living area? Is that supposed to be in the WC to make it a powder room?
- I would angle the garage wall along the boundary as I'm pretty sure a wall that close to the boundary would need to be a firewall anyway and it gets rid of the awkward triangle sliver and makes the garage a bit better
- upstairs bedroom (can't read the number maybe 2?) take the wardrobe off the long wall and put it on the short wall that the door is on. Again this is about furnishability and will improve the flow of the room. If you want you could even put it into the upstairs living and take up the space of what I think might be a cupboard?
- upstairs ensuite I would put window above toilet and move vanity next to the toilet. I like things to line up in bathrooms/ensuites so you are not going around the toilet, then around the vanity to get to the shower
- move the upstairs master bedroom door further up the passage so that the swing of the door doesn't go into the room
- consider putting the door from garage into house at the rear of the garage near the stairs so that it doesn't swing onto the passage way - just a safety and flow thing. Easier access to kitchen with groceries and you won't knock over anyone coming along passage.
- consider where furniture and tv would go in the downstairs living and arrange windows around that

This is getting pretty long. I'll do Units 2 and 3 in another post

 

Unit 2

- what's the area around the entry - a study? Needs to be a bit more defined
- kitchen seems small but there is nice flow from kitchen, meals, living
- consider flipping the stairs around so that then you can put a pantry from the kitchen under the stairs - it's no idea upstairs though as then the stairs finish right by a doorway
- consider swapping the master upstairs to the room next to the main bath and redesigning it so that it goes master, big ensuite and WIR
- turn existing ensuite into a dual access bathroom by removing linen cupboard to increase size and have an additional door from the upstairs living


Unit 3

- absolutely hate the kitchen in the middle, it really kills the flow, I would put it where the dining room is but sideways so you can still have windows to front garden etc
- laundry: I don't get how this will work at all as it looks too narrow. I
- master bedroom - I think you could improve this by putting a cavity slider on the ensuite at the middle then you could fit a double vanity along the vanity wall. It's a nice touch
- main bathroom is awkward in it's layout. I'd at least make the shower larger
- move robe in bed 2 to be along the wall that the door swings onto

 

Sorry if all my comments seem negative but I actually think these plans are pretty poor and have little consideration for how people live and furnish their houses. Most changes are simple and low or no cost to improve.

 

Agree with @Westminster ’s comments - the kitchen in Unit 3 and the vanity in the lounge in Unit 1 are particular shockers.

Re the porch/entry to Unit 2 - I wonder if you could move the entry to the wall closest to the driveway and then incorporate a study area sort of where the existing porch is?

 

Thanks all for feedback - a number of items I already have in particular robe locations to be corrected.
To answer - sorry approval is incorrect terminology - council have reviewed plans on a number of occasions and with their requested changes are now fully supporting our application.
POS between is for U2 & U3.
U1 - robe, vanity etc all agree, had that marked up for architect to correct.
Garage wall is interesting one - will have a look at that. Thanks.
Upstairs - robes yep for moving just placed there by drafts for council as ensuite window.
Master door & garage internal will have a look at. Stairs have moved from previous draft so internal makes sense.
Windows can be moved along walls and type of window changed without requiring amendment so some minor tweaks on all of those too.

U2 - yes a study type area - entry moved per council so can use as small study area. Stairwell is interesting as currently using as storage underneath but could flip for WIP.
Upstairs - like the rear master & WIR option & convert ensuite to main/common bath.

U3 - kitchen location unfortunate as council request/required for central kitchen & rear living space accessing rear POS. Will flip this to along Western wall with U shape bench to open up the flow through downstairs.
Upstairs plan to switch master bed & flip around ensuite / main bathrooms with a number of changes.

Thanks all for feedback - no offence taken & ideas are appreciated, cheers

 

hi, i am looking at building 6 townhouses on a 1200sqm block. 4 are 3bedders and 2 are 2 bedders. approx size 4 x 15sq each & 2 x 12sqm. after building a 51sq home for 8,000 a square with quality finishes, i estimate the cost per townhouse to be $150,000 each. what i don't know are the extra costs involved when building townhouses compared to a single dwelling. can you help. thanks

 

I'm really curious to know what the quotes ended up being for the three townhouses. Have you secured a builder?

 

This is a great little project, keep up the good work!

 

Thanks,
Current status is application is still with council so awaiting feedback before commencing advertising.
Will advise more when we hear back.
Cheers

 

Good on you for having a go mate. There are a couple of things to be mindful of as others have pointed out. I can't see any allowances for all your civil works and also contributions?
Also, Melbourne water can be a pain if they request an upgrade to their assist in the street to allow for the new dwellings. This happened to us at a cost of $300k but luckily the site was a little bigger so we could spread the load.
I would seriously get a company like KLM to have a look over the site as they can achieve a close enough assumption to figures mentioned above.

Just to give you an idea, if we are builder a unit site of say 10x 15sq single story units in the south east, our cheapest construction costs in low to medium spec would be close to $300k each dwelling. And that's when we have 10, the lower the number the higher the costs per dwelling because you don't have the scale to share the load civils etc.

 

hey, hows the progress going and can u post your steps so far and time stamps and costs

 

Thanks all - council contribution is included in $52k amount.
Latest is have put in a tenant for 3 months as continue preparations. The council has requested further information from first submission, TP is currently preparing and getting some tweaks done to drawings and land survey information. Expected to return to council in the next 2 weeks.
Will keep everyone informed as we progress.
Market is still strong but a way to go before we get to that stage.

 

Hey @craigc how are the plans looking now? I'd love to see them

 

Amazing feedback @Westminster. Remind me to post my plans on here when my turn comes around

Also very curious to know what the build quote comes back at. Have you run it past any builders just to get a rough estimate on build cost?

 

Hi @craigc , I don't have any experience here but would love to follow your post.
I have a corner block IP (598sqm) in Melbourne SE that I'd love to develop, too.
Hope everything is going well on your end.

 

The main concern i see on this plan is your SPOS of Unit 2 and 3 will not receive good sunlight as unit 1 first floor south facing wall will block all the sun. Might need to push these walls back 2m to comply with Rescode.

But again if council not pick this up, it will be your lucky day.

CL

 

All please see redrawn plans that have just gone back to council.
Used the baseline previous from draftsman but redrawn by professional architect firm.

Holdup also from town planner who has been disappointing, his knowledge and council contacts are great, but communication and speed / efficiency is very poor.

Note that upstairs Unit 2 - the main bathroom and Bed 2 will be tweaked a bit, will be corrected for the working drawings as we will definitely not have the toilet right near the door!

Some helpful feedback is much appreciated for simple improvements within the footprint.

Thankyou!