Building in the Toowoomba Region

A dwelling house is a standalone house occupied by a single household. It can include domestic outbuildings such as a carport or shed.

A secondary dwelling is part of a dwelling house. For example, a:

• granny flat
• teenager’s retreat
• relative’s apartment.

A secondary dwelling doesn’t need to be occupied by people in your household that would normally live in the main house.

Secondary dwelling approvals

A secondary dwelling only requires building and plumbing approvals. But it must meet the requirements that show it is ‘genuine’.

For example, it can only be associated with a dwelling house, not, for example, dual occupancy, multiple dwelling or caretaker’s accommodation.

There are key differences between secondary dwellings and dual occupancy.

It’s likely that the development is dual occupancy If you are proposing:

• separate utility connections
• separate driveway, mailbox or wheelie bins
• separate titling on a body corporate
• separate street address or meter connections.

Dual occupancy can also be subdivided and sold separately.

If your secondary dwelling is defined as dual occupancy, it will be subject to separate requirements, approvals and infrastructure charges.

Any secondary dwelling that does not satisfy the requirements for accepted development will typically require Council development approval.

Planning approval

We recommend you engage a building certifier or consultant town planner to confirm whether you need to lodge an application to build a secondary dwelling.

* NOTE: The amendment to the Planning Regulation came into effect on Monday 29th September 2022. This amendment removed the restriction of how members of a household live together. This recognised that the relationships of occupants in a dwelling and how they interact with one another should not be considered in a planning assessment of how land is used. This amendment will be reviewed in three years by the Queensland Government.

A dual occupancy premises has two dwellings on one lot for two households. It may be:

• a “duplex” (two dwellings with a common wall)
• two new freestanding dwellings
• a new dwelling built in the yard of an existing dwelling.

Each dwelling can be separately serviced or sub-metered.

Planning approval

We recommend you engage a building certifier or consultant town planner to confirm whether you need to lodge an application to build a dual occupancy premises.

Multiple dwellings have three or more dwellings for separate households, such as:

• apartments
• flats
• units
• townhouse
• row or terrace housing
• triplexes.

A multiple dwelling does not include rooming accommodation, dual occupancy, duplex, secondary dwelling, residential care facility or retirement facility.

Planning approval

All proposed multiple dwellings and extensions to existing multiple dwellings trigger a material change of use application to us. Planning Scheme zones, as well as any overlays or the local plan over your site, will determine the level of assessment.

A certifier must also approve any building work before you start construction. They will check that that your proposed building work complies with the Building Act 1975 (Qld) and associated standards.

This is separate to development approval for Material Change of Use.

Visit the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) website for more information about building approvals and building certifiers.

Houses on rural lots must have:

• access to an all-weather road and a water supply
• appropriate wastewater treatment and offsite disposal.

They also need to be separate from adjoining properties to manage the impact of noise, odour or spray drift from animals and other rural uses.

Houses should be located at least 50 metres from all property boundaries – further away from quarries or animal industries.

This 50-metre setback is both:

• an alternative building provision to the Queensland Development Code
• a requirement to meet ‘Accepted Development subject to requirements’ criteria in the planning scheme.

If you want to build your house within 50 metres of any property boundary, your building certifier cannot approve it. They will need to refer your development to us for assessment.

You will need to submit a code-assessable Material Change of Use development application and a request for a referral agency response.

If you can’t meet any other requirements, you may need to submit a code-assessable development permit to Council, as well as standard building and plumbing approvals.

The planning scheme definition of a dwelling includes a secondary dwelling associated with the main dwelling.

This means that you may be allowed to build a secondary house on a rural block, but it should be:

• on the same lot as the primary house
• self-contained
• preferably used by the same household as the primary house
• subordinate to, and smaller than, the primary house.

The second house will still need to meet the same requirements as the main house, such as being located 50 metres from all property boundaries.
Building a second dwelling does not automatically entitle you to subdivide the property. For more information about subdividing, read Subdivision, realigning boundaries or amalgamating lots.

We also recommend checking with your home and contents insurance provider to see if a second house will affect your insurance policy.

Council might consider a new rural or farm shed ‘accepted development’. This means they might not need a building application. However, they must still comply with the relevant building and planning codes and regulations.

To be considered accepted development the farm shed must:

• be more than 200 meters from each allotment boundary
• be used in association with an onsite rural use such as a machinery storage, hay shed, storage of plants or food that is grown onsite
• be used for an agricultural, floricultural, horticultural or pastoral purpose
• not form any part of a pool or pool fence.

If the farm shed meets all these requirements, you don’t need to submit a building or siting application.

If it cannot meet all the requirements above, you will have to submit a building application.

You can see the zone for your property in Council’s planning scheme maps. Use the ‘Identify’ tool in these maps to determine which zone your land is in, or if it is in an overlay area.

You can also check if your road is an all-weather road with our Road Register.

Rural lots can be affected by different natural characteristics. We have categorised these as ‘overlays’.

An overlay identifies areas of land with characteristics that need to be considered when development is planned in these areas, to ensure safety to people and property. Many of these overlays relate to hazards such as bushfire, flooding and landslide.

If your proposed building site is located within one of these overlay areas, you must consider requirements in the planning scheme that must be considered. For example, if your building site is in a bushfire hazard overlay, you may need to:

• engage a professional to prepare a bushfire management plan
• ensure that you have provided sufficient on-site water storage on the property.

If you have a property in a Rural Residential Zone, Council’s planning scheme has specific requirements if the total floor area of all sheds on the property will be larger than 10% of the land size.

For example, if your block is 4000m², there will be extra requirements when the total size of all sheds is over 400m². These requirements can be found in the Rural Residential Zone Code in Part 6 of the planning scheme.

Toowoomba and the surrounding towns have many historic homes and distinct streetscape character areas. Some historic homes are listed in the planning scheme as neighbourhood character places. Character areas are identified by the neighbourhood character overlay in the planning scheme maps.

Heritage places are properties that have significant cultural value. We nominate local heritage places while the Queensland Government identifies state heritage places. This is to make sure that any development contributes to preserving these places.

Within Neighbourhood Character areas, a new house needs a development application to us to assess the design. If you live in an existing character house, there are restrictions to the type of shed or carport you can place on the property. It must stay true to the design of the house and be located so it does not detract from the character of the home or the street.

If your house is listed as a Neighbourhood Character Place, extensions to the front half of the house may need approval. A full list of development approvals you need to submit are in Part 5 of the planning scheme.

All neighbourhood character and heritage places are listed within Schedule 6 of the planning scheme.

For more information about building in the Toowoomba Region, call 131 872 and ask to speak to one of our Technical Advice Officers.