As long as you’re polite and completely honest about it there won’t be any issues at all.

I’ve had a few customers try to deceive me with promises of future work, saying how another surveyor gave a friend the same service for this much so many years ago etc. I’ve even had extremely rude demands to give people a lower price. In all these cases if…[Read more]

Gold Coast sounds good!

On a serious note what I’ve found from experience in the industry is that the cheapest survey may not necessarily be the best. Corners get cut with the dodgy cheap surveyors and you’ll no doubt have council requesting more information which then blows the budget out of the water. Look for a surveyor with good experience…[Read more]

Hi Viral,

That would depend on council if they require detailed plans to be submitted with the permit application. I would expect that for a duplex development this would be fairly Australian-wide (as It’s the case with councils around my area). To confirm this I would give the council’s planner a call and see what they think about it.

I would…[Read more]

Hi Viral,

It’s completely up to you where you go from here. Yes you are correct in indentifying planners as a first point of call along with listing building companies as an option. In my experience the big builders are generally a lot of trouble and hassle (plus they don’t pay their tradies much so there is some compromise in…[Read more]

Thanks for the good feedback! Oh well now you have it for your next project

Cheers,

Hi Rob,

There’s another thread here about townhouse development in Melbourne, which I’m sure will be of use to you!

https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forums/property-investing/help-needed/4343719

I can give you some help with your subdivision questions though. In my experience the difference between doing the subdivision yourself and paying…[Read more]

Hi Tony,

Not really giving you a direct answer to your query here, but I think the general consensus on all the property forums is that the big builders (those all-in-one packages) are screaming bad news and headaches.

You’d be best getting a project manager, or like you said handle the project yourself if you’ve got a bit of spare time.

If you…[Read more]

Hi fellow forum-ers,

My name’s Ashley (prefer Ash), and as you’ve no doubt already gathered in a Land Surveyor. I’m located in Montrose, Victoria – about 45mins east of Melbourne CBD. I specialize in 2 and 3 lot subdivisions, although we have done quite a few large apartment blocks, inner-city developments and rural subdivisions- for those on…[Read more]

Hi Mark,

I’d suggest giving the town planner at Banyule a call and getting a run-down of the council fees involved. Surveyor and Architect/Draftsman fees vary very little from which area of town we’re working in, as it’s just the same process but in a different location.

First you’d want to check out the zoning and see if there are any building…[Read more]

Hi,

I would recommend finding a local surveyor and having a chat with them. Rural subdivision is relatively straight forward in my experience.

I also suggest talking to your council’s town planner and seeing their view on the development before you start spending. Even though they’ve changed the zoning they might want to keep certain…[Read more]

Hi Anandd,

Whoever designs the subdivision can arrange the common property or carriageway easement. This can be either the surveyors, architects, designers or a combination of the above. I mostly see it done after the design of the new dwelling is completed and we know the position of the house and fences according to title (re-establishment of…[Read more]

Hi Kris,

Strata subdivisions in Vic are completed and finalized upon completion of the project – or at least when there’s some brickwork up. The surveyor uses the structures for the subdivision.

On the plan of subdivision we show the building extents/footprint rather than the typical bearing-distance boundaries for torrens subdivisions. The…[Read more]

From a business point of view I can add some suggestions. I work with the same builders regularly for the following reasons:
– Professional, Qualified and Well-Experienced
– Reliability
– Hassle-free
– Keep customers happy from all aspects of the project.
– Are people who I can regularly refer people to.
– Trustworthy

Having flexibility in your…[Read more]

As Emma said call up council and speak to the town planner there. They’ll be able to give you a good idea of it it’s possible or not.

Where is the block located anyway?

Hi Mike,

Looks like you might need an arborist to come out and have a look. They’ll be able to give you some further information on what you can do with them. I’m not sure what the going rate for arborists are, but the guy I use costs roughly $70 p/hr. Wouldn’t take more than a couple of hours tops for a standard residential block.

All the best…[Read more]

Good to see you’ve done your research! I assume by R30 you’re located in WA.

I always tell clients to do more than enough research thoroughly to eliminate any future issues. The more the better.

Just a word of advice, look up the processes for development in your state, the steps will be the same from one council to the next, with maybe some…[Read more]

Sounds like you’ve got it sorted. Seemingly many people go down that road to keep some cashflow going through the building / renovating process. Have you checked out your zoning and current copy of title to see if there are any limitations to development?

Hi Dragon,

These costs are definitely on the higher end of the scale, and I know that there are multiple items here which could have the costs reduced from researching / using good contractors (The survey costs should be 60-70% of what I’ve been quoted!). There are multiple items which wouldn’t really apply in the subdivision itself, for…[Read more]

Hi,

Surveyors and planners are the first point of call in all developments. Surveyors are essentially the guys who measure all the existing site conditions to determine feasibility of the project. Planners put the desired development into action by analyzing survey plans whilst having a thorough knowledge of local planning regulations. By using…[Read more]

No worries at all, I’m always happy to help out with queries regarding development etc. There’s just about zero information on the internet about these processes (I suspect because most surveyors are terrible with technology!)