The Department of Planning and Environment has prepared a draft Medium Density Design Guide to encourage more low rise medium density housing to be built in NSW, providing greater housing choice, more housing affordability and better quality design. •

The Design Guide provides benchmarks for designing and assessing low rise medium density housing types including:

• Terrace style housing on small lots (attached dwellings)
• Dual occupancies and semi-detached dwellings;
• Multi-dwelling housing (strata titled terrace housing);
• Multi-dwelling housing (strata titled villas and townhouses);
• Community titled master-planned medium density developments of up to 2 storeys; and,
• Manor homes (2 storey buildings comprising 3-4 dwellings).

It is proposed that the Design Guide will be used for both complying developments and development applications to promote good design outcomes for medium density housing types across NSW.

It is expected that the Government will adopt the code early in 2017.