Turning 1 BR into 2 BR: Cost vs. Return

Thanks for your input everyone. If I understand correctly, this is the permitting process:

1) I submit a proposal to Body Corporate
2) Body Corporate makes a decision.
3) If decision is YES, then they forward to Local Council.
4 If Local Council rejects it, it ends there. If Local Council accepts it, I can go forward with it, and don't have to worry.

Is that right?
Cheers

 

yes..

 

Not quite. More like this:

1) I submit a proposal to Body Corporate
2) Body Corporate makes a decision.
3) If decision is YES, then they will provide you consent to get approval from Council.
4) You will need to lodge an application with BCC. This will be either a Change Application (to modify the original DA for the whole development) or a Material Change of Use DA. Given the costs associated with a Change Application (the BCC Fee alone is $6900+), you will probably need to go with the new DA. Once you factor in the costs of plans, town planner, Council Fees, this will cost you at least $5k, probably more.
5) If Council rejects it, it ends there. If Local Council approves it, I can go forward with building approval which incurs additional costs (BA plans, building certification etc).

Some issues that you may have with Council:
- Each unit is required to provide a minimum of 12sqm of private open space (balcony) with a minimum dimension of 3m (in BCC). If you are enclosing a balcony, you may no longer meet this requirement. The example you provided will remove the only part of the balcony that is large enough to accommodate a 3m x 3m dimension so I don't think Council would support this.
- Car parking. A 2 bedroom unit has higher car parking rates than a 1 bedroom unit;

 

Thank you for your feedback, apologies I am a bit late to reply to this.

Regarding your point 4, could you clarify a couple points?

4) You will need to lodge an application with BCC (meaning "Brisbane City Council" ?). This will be either a Change Application (to modify the original DA (what does DA stand for?) for the whole development) or a Material Change of Use DA. Given the costs associated with a Change Application (the BCC Fee alone is $6900+), you will probably need to go with the new DA.

You mean that the application to BCC alone costs $6900, regardless of outcome?
All in all, the document costs (excluding construction costs) would be:

BCC: $6900+
DA: $5000+

Is that a reasonable document cost estimate?