Service area
Building design and planning approvals in Randwick
The development control plan changed in July 2026. If you are working from anything written before then, check it.
The instruments in force
DCP 2025 commenced 27 July 2026, after being endorsed by council on 30 June 2026, and supersedes the majority of the Randwick Comprehensive DCP 2013. The 2013 plan still applies where it has not been replaced, so both documents are live and you need to know which part governs your control. Stage 3 of the review — covering design with Country, noise, waste, outdoor advertising and the Matraville town centre — is due to be reported to council before the end of 2026.
Verified 7 September 2026. LEPs are amended constantly and DCP chapters change independently of each other — we confirm the in-force version against your address rather than working from this page.
Two live DCPs, and why it matters now
Randwick is midway through a staged replacement of its development control plan. DCP 2025 commenced on 27 July 2026 and supersedes most of the 2013 comprehensive plan — but not all of it. The 2013 controls remain in force wherever the 2025 plan has not replaced them, and Stage 3 will move more of them again before the end of 2026.
For anyone designing here right now, that means the question "what does the DCP say" has two possible answers per control, and the older one is still correct for some of them. Most advice written before mid-2026 — including a good deal of what is currently published online about designing in Randwick — cites the 2013 plan without qualification.
We check the control, not the document.
Coastal, heritage and the eastern suburbs envelope
Three things constrain almost everything here.
The coast. Coogee, Clovelly, Bronte, Maroubra, Malabar and Little Bay carry coastal management provisions, and the cliff-top and beachfront land carries more. Coastal land is one of the constraints that takes a project out of complying development.
Heritage. Randwick has a large number of heritage items and several substantial conservation areas, particularly through Randwick itself, Kensington and parts of Coogee and Clovelly. In a heritage conservation area, external alterations are generally excluded from the Housing Alterations Code — which means a DA with a heritage impact statement rather than a certificate. See alterations and additions.
Lot sizes and the existing stock. A lot of Randwick is semis, terraces and small freestanding cottages on tight frontages, frequently attached. That closes several pathways at once: a common wall takes a project out of the Housing Code, and the front of an existing attached or semi-detached dwelling carries its own exclusions.
What we do here most
- Alterations and additions — the dominant project type in this LGA, and usually a DA rather than a certificate because of heritage or attachment. See alterations and additions
- Second-storey and rear additions to semis and terraces, where the side setback and the floor area cap do the deciding
- Heritage-affected work, where the design conversation starts with the conservation area's character rather than with the envelope
- Strata and dual-lot projects, which are more common here than in the south and bring their own consent complications
- LMR sites around Randwick Junction, Kensington, Kingsford and Maroubra Junction. See multi-dwelling and LMR
Expect a DA
More projects go to a development application here than in the southern LGAs we work in, and it is usually the site rather than the design that decides it — heritage, coastal, attachment, or a lot under the code's minimums.
That is not a reason to design smaller. It is a reason to design knowing that the application will be assessed on merit, which means the statement of environmental effects is doing real work rather than reciting compliance. See development applications.
Suburbs we work in
Randwick · Coogee · South Coogee · Clovelly · Bronte · Maroubra · Malabar · Matraville · Chifley · Little Bay · Phillip Bay · La Perouse · Kensington · Kingsford · Daceyville · Centennial Park
Not an exhaustive list of the LGA. If your suburb isn't here, we almost certainly still work there — send the address.
Have a site in Randwick?
Send us the address. We'll run the controls that apply to it and tell you what it can carry.