Granny flat and second home rules set to change

IF you're on a bit of land and plan to put in a second dwelling as an investment or a granny flat within the next year, you might want to read this.

Building rules for second dwellings on Sunshine Coast acreage properties are changing. Picture: Chad Baker/Jason Reed/Ryan McVay

IF you're on a bit of land and plan to put in a second dwelling as an investment or a granny flat within the next year, you might want to read this.

As most of us well know, housing affordability has become a real issue on the Coast with many looking at ways to accommodate their children or grandparents.

For those with acreage, it makes a lot of sense to build a second, smaller dwelling - even if its just to give you a bit of distance between yourself and your teenage kids.

Of course, longer term, a second dwelling can provide a nice rental return without the cost of having to purchase a new block of land.

Kaarlo Pesu, from Environmental Building Designs,  points out new dwelling can become positively geared adding value to your property, as most 2nd dwellings end up costing somewhere between $100K - $200K to build.

But he warns  some rules are changing in one week on June 30, which will restrict you on what you can do on your property.

He says it may be smart to move quickly to lock in a building approval on your land now within the current Rules and then build later.

Some of the concepts from Environmental Building Designs.

CURRENT RULES allow your 2nd dwelling to be:

• 90 sqm in internal area + decks & garage .…. anywhere on your acreage (Rural Res or Rural Zoning) or
• 60 sqm on other zones with land bigger than 600sqm (conditions apply.)
• with a separate driveway crossing and a separate meter box

THE NEW RULES that may apply after June 30.

The 2nd dwelling:

• must be within 30 metres of the main dwelling
• use the same driveway crossing for both dwellings
• share the same meter-box between the 2 dwellings

Mr Pesu said to beat the changes you need to apply by June 26, with their fast track system. Once approved you have two years to build. Normal building approvals can take several weeks to process.