Narrow Duplex - Perth builders

Hi All,

So yesterday our offer was accepted for a piece of land in North Perth!

The land currently has a house on it (which is unlivable) built over 2 lots and totals 672m2, zoned R40 with frontage of 13.42m.

There is no rear lane way, and so our only options will be a side by side development or potentially a battleaxe development (however I would prefer 2 street frontage units).

Once we subdivide, each lots will have 6.7M frontage! Very narrow!!

There are very few dual occupancy/side by side duplex developments in Perth. In Melb they are everywhere!! 1 big house split into 2 essentially.

However I have seen a few in Perth such as:

13/13a Franklin Street, Leederville
15/15a Burt Street, Mount Lawley
107/107a Forrest Street, North Perth

Can anyone suggest good developers in Perth to take on this custom job? Trendsetter have been recommended to us.

With no rear laneway, we will need single garage doors at the front, making it even more difficult. Ideally I would like to build basement garages but I have heard that can be expensive??

We are aiming to create 2 luxury units and were budgeting up to the 1mill mark for construction - does this sound realistic?

Any advice is appreciated - this is our first development and we are excited but would love some guidance.

 

@Perthguy @Westminster

 

Well this is going to be an interesting one.

I know your examples well and they all have rear laneways so they work well because of that. Forrest St is the exception and they managed to get it to work with a single garage but it was harder to sell.

Having a single garage will reduce some of your target market who will own 2 cars. Have you considered having a double carport which might be permissible on your blocks?

The rest of the design should be quite easy if you have nice depth to work with. There will be a lot of construction on boundary which can increase costs and reduce where you can put windows etc but all can be worked around.

Your budget sounds enough for quite large houses - you might not need to go that high.

 

Thanks so much for your reply!

Yes the garage situation is going to be the most difficult part. I would love to build basement garages with small garage door (single garage door) that opens up into full width double garage under the house once you drive in...sounds expensive!! Otherwise double carport may be an option but not ideal in my opinion.

We do have 50m depth to play with which is pretty good.

Hoping you are right RE: budget

Thanks,
Daniel

 

Is there any slope on the block that could make undercroft garaging work?

15 Burt St Mount lawley did basement/undercroft garaging but I suspect the block is just a little wider maybe 7.5 to fit the double garage and the footpath https://www.realestate.com.au/property/15-burt-st-mount-lawley-wa-6050

 

The land is completely flat, no sloping at all.

Yes I like how 15 Burt St did it. They did have much wider frontage just under 8m I believe.

That's why I was thinking just a single garage door instead of double, but once you enter into the basement it would open into the full width of the house if that makes sense?
Something like this kind off - a smaller garage door, but the actual undercroft wide enough to fit 2 cars.
MODERN DUPLEX WITH BASEMENT GARAGE - CONDELL PARK - Aktreum Building Designers

A bit confusing and complex I am sure...maybe not possible.

 

It could sort of work. You'd need the cars to park on an angle and reverse in the way they came. So if the single garage door is to the right then you'd have angled parking to the left but there is no turning room so they need to reverse back to the door and up the driveway. A turntable might assist but would take up more room again. That amount of room would make it expensive.

Tandem garage or a double carport would be the simplest option

 

A few more 6m frontage designs

 

Thanks for that.

Yes can definitely work with a single garage.

I will need to find out if basement garage is an option and the cost

 

Yikes that’s narrow. Would a battle axe situation work better?

 

It probably would...

Once finance is all sorted I will meet with an architect to discuss options.

I really would prefer 2 street frontages but I know it's a bit difficult with this.

https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-townhouse-vic-brighton+east-120460237

Something like this is just awesome! I see they had to use a turntable for the basement garage, but this duplex is only about 80cm wider on each side than mine...surely I could pull something similar off ????

I may be dreaming

 

Wow, that’s stunning Is North Perth ready for that?! Half joking / half a serious question. I grew up there but left 15+ years ago. Would have been far too nice for the area when I left, I’m assuming it’s taken off. It is/was a very convienet location.

 

Haha there are some really nice modern homes that have come up in the area in the last few years, but that example from Brighton in VIC is probably overkill. It would cost too much to build and someone willing to pay that much for it would probably want to live more west!

I will show that example to the architect though and ask them if we can somehow cheapen it up a bit

 

Turntables are quite reasonably priced in the scheme of things. I put one in this year into a property in North Perth and it was around $22k which on a $1m construction contract I was happy to pay to get the parking to work.

 

Thanks Westminster - that is very true. If it's going to allow for more parking space than a single car garage I think it's totally worth it.

Do you have any idea how much basements/undercroft cost? Is there an approx m2 rate?

 

I would say around $2000 psqm as there is a lot of retaining involved and would be more expensive than normal construction

But that is a guess as I haven't built one

 

Makes sense, thanks.

 

Hey guys!

Looking for some opinions/advice about what people think the best way to subdivide this land would be.

Dimensions are 13.42m width x 50.4m depth.

While the land was sold as 2 side by side lots under 1 title, council confirmed that they cannot simply issue 2 titles, and I will need to engage a surveyor. Essentially the old home sitting on the lots was built over 2 lots. I am guessing this means I am up for full subdivision costs?

As I will need to engage a surveyor, I am now not sure the best way to split up the land (or even what is allowed). Can I call council to ask these questions or is the surveyor who I should be asking?

Pros of side by side
- can build 2 street frontage homes
- could fetch a higher end value than battleaxe?

cons of side by side
- difficult build, may mean I can only do single garage for each home, not sure.
- probably can't sell off one piece of land and build on the other as the homes will need to be build together to make the design work? Funds may be tight, so would like the option of being able to sell off 1 land and develop on the other

Pros of battle axe:
- Easier build
- Can subdivide, sell of rear and build on front

Cons
- Lose a lot of land to the driveway
- rear house may fetch less value


Both these ideas go somewhat against the city of Vincent's design policy (side by side generally not supported less than 8m frontages, and battleaxe supported with ROW or existing dwelling)....however others have done it in the area with exact same land dimension (side by side and battle-axe), so assuming there is some wiggle room. As there is no ROW, these are are only options, so hoping council will play ball. They must allow subdivision on an R40 672m2 piece of land with a non-livable house on it?

What do you guys think?

 

There are council preferences (ie they ask you to use ROW if there is one instead of street crossovers) but they are preferences so if that isn't an option because there isn't one then the default options are available.

The main sticking point is that no council (or Rcodes) likes garages being more than 50% of the frontage but there are ways around it with good design and justification, especially if it's 2 storey.

However if you go with the narrow option then you will want to build a lot on boundary, especially the middle boundary possibly at 2 storey height and so you would need DA for both sides and yes easiest to build at the same time.

If you aren't prepared to build both then I think the easiest option might be to go with the front/back option and suck up losing the space to the driveway.

Generally town planners will help guide you what is possible in terms of design and council restrictions and surveyors will help with creating the lots, subdivision and getting it ready for 2 titles.

If you have the option it can be best to get the design work done first and then set the lot boundaries. You don't want to carve the blocks up equally then get caught out by the City of Vincent policy that the front house setback must be the average of 5 houses either side and realise that your front setback needs to be 6m instead of the standard 2 and it kills the design you want. It would be better to get the design approved and be able to move the lot boundaries around then subdivide if you have flexibility with timelines.

 

Yes this may be the best case from a financial management point of view. Unfortunately we are doing lo doc, so construction loan is going to cost us big time which worries me a bit, so I want that option of being able to sell off one piece if lenders are not being nice to us when it comes to construction.

The other option I thought of which I don't think will be easy, is to get the side by side designs done and approved, subdivide and sell off the land and design together? I.e. the buyer buys the one side for $x amount and goes half on construction costs. I think they did that with 71A Tate street, west Leederville, but I imagine it will be hard to find a buyer.