NSW home types: multi dwelling housing (townhouses and villas)
What is multi dwelling housing? In NSW planning, it's three or more dwellings on one lot, attached or detached, each with access at ground level (Standard Instrument Dictionary). Townhouses and villas are the everyday names.
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Video transcript
What is multi dwelling housing? It's the planning term for townhouses and villas.
Multi dwelling housing is three or more dwellings on one lot of land, attached or detached, each with access at ground level. It doesn't include a residential flat building.
Townhouses and villas are the everyday names. Terraces are a special kind: all the dwellings are attached and face a public road. Our terraces explainer covers those.
Every LEP must permit multi dwelling housing with consent in R1 and R3, and councils can add zones. In LMR areas, the Housing SEPP also permits it with consent in R2 Low Density Residential, even where the local plan doesn't.
The Low Rise Housing Diversity Code covers terraces, not other multi dwelling housing. For townhouses, the Pattern Book's Row Homes design may be carried out as complying development if built exactly to that pattern in R1, R2 or R3, where multi dwelling housing is permitted on the land, which in R2 generally means only in LMR areas. Otherwise, it's a DA.
In an LMR area, a DA gets non-refusal standards: a 600 m² lot, 12 metres wide, a floor space ratio of 0.7 to 1, and 9.5 metres high. So townhouses may be a real option for an R2 site in an LMR area, subject to a s 10.7 planning certificate and development consent, or registered certifier sign-off for the Pattern Book design.
Check your site with SN Architects, at snarchitects.com.au.
Key points
In NSW Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy (LMR) areas, it's permitted with consent in R2, except on excluded land (Housing SEPP s 164) (s 170), and a development application gets non-refusal standards of a 600 m² lot, 12 m width, 0.7:1 and 9.5 m (s 172(2)).
Townhouses may be a real option for an R2 site in an LMR area, subject to a s 10.7 planning certificate and development consent, or, where multi dwelling housing is permitted on the land, the Pattern Book 'Row Homes 01' design may be carried out as complying development, except on excluded land (Housing SEPP s 164), with registered certifier sign-off if built exactly to the pattern (Codes SEPP cl 3BA.3(4)).
Row Homes 01's own Pattern Book site requirements apply.
Check your site
Check your site with SN Architects
www.snarchitects.com.au | info@snarchitects.com.au
As at and sources
General information only, not planning advice. Current as at October 2026 (Housing SEPP 2021 and Codes SEPP 2008 as in force from 11 September 2026).
Sources: NSW Legislation, https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au
Based on content from the New South Wales Legislation website at 8 October 2026. For the latest information on New South Wales Government legislation please go to https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au.
Narration: AI-generated voice
Disclaimer
This is general information only, not planning, legal or financial advice, and it is not an assessment of any particular property. Planning rules change and every site is different. Before relying on it, obtain a section 10.7 planning certificate for your property and advice from a qualified town planner or registered certifier. To the extent permitted by law, SN Architects accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on this information. Information current as at October 2026. © SN Architects 2026.
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