Development Applications in Badagarang, NSW

Development activity in Badagarang

I’ve been working the residential building scene in Badagarang for the better part of a decade now, and I can tell you it’s a different beast to what’s happening in the bigger centres down the coast. This place has always been a bit of a sleeper, but the last two years have really woken it up. We’ve got five development applications lodged at the moment, which doesn’t sound like much until you realise the whole suburb only has a couple of hundred blocks. The council is a local council, not a regional authority, so you’re dealing with the same faces every time you walk in. That’s good and bad. Good because they know the land, bad because they remember the last job you did that copped a complaint.

The housing stock here is a real mix. You’ve got your fibro holiday shacks from the seventies that are slowly rotting into the ground, some decent brick veneer homes from the eighties that families still live in, and a handful of new estates creeping out towards the national park boundary. Nobody is building McMansions in Badagarang. The clients are mostly locals who have been renting in the area for years and finally saved enough for a knockdown-rebuild, or young families from Sydney who sold up and are looking for a four-bedroom on a proper block without a body corporate. You also get the odd upsizer, usually a retiree who wants a single-level home with a decent shed for the boat. Investors are around, but they’re not dominant. The yields aren’t flash compared to Wollongong, so they tend to go for duplexes and dual-occupancy builds to squeeze two rental incomes out of one site.

That’s the bread and butter here: duplex and dual-occupancy projects. They make up the bulk of the DAs we’re seeing. The council is pretty clear on what they want for these. They’ll knock you back if you try to cram two three-bedders onto a 450-square-metre block. You need at least 600 square metres, and they’re strict on side setbacks. I’ve had jobs held up for three weeks because the car parking layout didn’t meet their turning circle requirements. Turnaround time is about eight to ten weeks for a straightforward DA, but if you’ve got a tree preservation issue or a flood overlay, double that. The local council doesn’t have a massive planning department, so they’re not fast, but they’re consistent. If you follow the DCP to the letter and don’t try any clever design tricks, you’ll get through.

New home construction is the other active project type, but it’s a different game. These aren’t spec homes. Most of the new builds in Badagarang are owner-occupier driven, and the owners are hands-on. They want to be on site every second day asking questions about window sizes and tile grout colours. You’ve got to have patience for that. The typical new home here is a three or four-bedroom with a separate living area, a big covered alfresco, and a double garage. Nobody wants a rumpus room or a formal dining room. They want indoor-outdoor flow and low-maintenance gardens. The land is sandy in parts, so you’re paying extra for deep footings and piering on some blocks. That catches out a lot of builders who quote off a standard plan from the coast.

The “other” category in the DAs covers renovations and extensions, and that’s where the real work is for the smaller crews. People are adding second storeys onto those old fibro shacks rather than demolishing them, because the cost of a full knockdown and rebuild has blown out to around $3500 a square metre now. A decent two-storey extension might set you back $250,000 to $300,000, but it doubles the usable space. The council is actually easier on these than the new builds. They’re more concerned about neighbourhood character and not overshadowing the neighbours. If you’re doing a renovation in Badagarang, keep your roof pitch matching the street and you’ll be fine.

The market right now is steady, not hot. Prices have flattened out over the last six months. Builders who were quoting 12-month completion times are now