There are three types of dual occupancy developments (i.e. building two town houses or units on a block of land).
“Side by side town houses”, which are the most popular type of dual occupancy development because both homes have their own street frontage and equal amounts of land. For this type of development, the width of the land is most important and should be a minimum of 15.0M (i.e. 50 feet).
“One behind the other town houses”, which have become less popular because the size of the rear town house is greatly limited by town planning regulations and a significant amount of land is taken up by the driveway for the rear town house. However, for larger land sizes (i.e. over 800 M²) or corner blocks over 600 M² this type of dual occupancy can still work well.
“One on top of the other apartments”, which have become very popular with mature buyers who are downsizing from family homes and prefer to live on a single level in a generously sized apartment with a low maintenance “lock up and leave” lifestyle.
In the inner Melbourne suburbs such as Richmond, Port Melbourne, St Kilda and Yarraville, dual occupancy developments can be done on relatively compact blocks of land of approximately 400M². But in most other suburbs, the recommended land size for a dual occupancy development is 600 M² + and the width of the block is often more important than the depth. Corner properties also add more design flexibility for dual occupancies and better street frontage design opportunities and often sell for premium prices.
Car parking and garages often present significant design and town planning challenges for dual occupancies especially on smaller blocks. Basement garaging can solve this problem and also add extra storage and amenity for the town houses but at a significant additional building cost.
