As the Victorian government works on apartment guidelines for Melbourne, a ruling in the NSW Land and Environment Court last week has increased the required minimum size of proposed apartments, potentially affecting the size of all future apartments in Sydney.

Land and Environment Court Justice Sheehan made a ruling in a dispute between Botany City Council and developer Botany Developments Pty Ltd over the size of 158 units in a three to six storey complex. Justice Sheehan said the widely used standard of the “rules of thumb” included in the Residential Flat Design Code was not the guideline that should be followed for minimum sizing, as set out in State Environmental Planning Policy 65, and an adjoining table in the code which lists dramatically larger sizes is the correct guideline. The table advises at least 58 square metres for a one bedroom apartment, and 91 square metres for a two bedroom apartment. Botany City Council's own development control plan lists 75 square metres as the minimum size for one bedroom dwellings.

The Residential Flat Design Code was introduced in 2002 to improve design quality in residential flat buildings across NSW. It requires buildings to be designed by registered architects. No such code exists in Victoria.

Victoria's Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, told The Real Estate Conversation that the Andrews Labor Government is right now working on guidelines to find the best model for apartment design standards. Wynne said the code used in Sydney, as well as others here and overseas, is being considered as a part of that process. "Some apartments in Melbourne are poorly designed," said Wynne. "Some apartments are too small, too dark and badly ventilated. It is not for me to tell people how to live, but Melbourne is in danger of creating a monoculture of one-bedroom poorly designed apartment stock. Some of these apartments even use borrowed light in the bedroom and have a shower over the toilet."

Wynne said Melbourne is expecting almost 100,000 people per year to arrive in the city over the coming decades. "Apartments can help to house our growing population but they need to improve our communities not weaken them," he said. "We need greater diversity in apartment sizes in the city to cater for a diverse population."

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