The site has to prove the numbers before construction proves the design. If you’re planning a dual occupancy or boutique development in Melbourne, feasibility comes before finishes and buildability comes before the drawings run too far. Gidaya Group works on developments, dual occupancy and townhouses from $500k across Melbourne and Victoria.

Does the site actually stack up?

Before anything, the block has to earn the project.

A development lives or dies on feasibility, and feasibility is decided by the site long before a design exists. Zoning, overlays, setbacks, easements, fall, services, neighbours, access and the shape of the land all set what’s actually possible. Two blocks the same size can carry very different yields once planning and site reality are applied. Site coverage and permeability rules cap how much of the block you can build over, and getting that wrong is how a concept plan stops fitting the numbers it was built on. The mistake that costs the most is designing to an assumed yield, then finding out the site never supported it. Test the site first. The design is worth developing once you know what the block will allow.

Dual occupancy or a townhouse development, what’s the real difference?

The scale changes everything.

A dual occupancy is usually one lot carrying two dwellings, side by side or one behind the other, sometimes staying on a single title and sometimes going to a torrens or unit title subdivision. It’s the entry point for a lot of developers and investors moving from a single build into their first development play. Consultant costs are lower, the planning path is often more predictable, and the construction program isn’t far off building one house twice.

A townhouse or boutique development changes the shape of the problem. More dwellings means more subdivision complexity, more shared infrastructure, staged trades working across several lots at once, and a bigger planning permit carrying more conditions. The yield is higher, but so is the coordination it takes to deliver it without the program or the budget sliding.

Neither path is automatically better. The right structure depends on what the site and the zoning actually support, who the eventual buyer or tenant is, and whether the plan is to hold, sell off the plan, or sell on completion. That’s worth testing before a designer starts drawing to an assumed outcome.

What decides how many dwellings a block can take?

Not the frontage alone, and not a rule of thumb.

Yield comes out of the interaction between the planning controls and the physical site. Setbacks and private open space requirements eat into the footprint. Overlays can cap height or protect vegetation. Access and driveway rules decide whether a rear dwelling can even be serviced. Services and drainage decide what the ground can take. A feasible development balances all of that against the market it’s built for, because the highest theoretical yield isn’t always the most profitable one once construction cost and saleability are counted.

Stormwater and drainage capacity often set the real ceiling before planning does. A site that can only shed water at a certain rate may need on-site detention, and that detention has to sit somewhere, often the same footprint the extra dwelling needed. Power, gas and sewer connections carry similar limits. Upgrading them is a cost that has to be counted before the yield is locked in, not discovered once the trades are on site.

Project Turner is a high-end development in Malvern East, under Stonnington. Project French is a development in Northcote, under Darebin. Both sit in the same discipline: read the site and the planning path first, then design to what the block and the market will actually carry.

How does yield trade off against amenity?

More dwellings isn’t automatically more money.

Push a site to its maximum theoretical yield and you often shrink private open space, borrow light from one dwelling to protect another, and squeeze storage and parking into whatever’s left over. On paper the yield looks better. On the market, a cramped dwelling competes against a better-proportioned one from the block next door, and the smaller number of well-designed dwellings can outsell the larger number of compromised ones.

The 7 star energy standard that applies to new homes under NCC 2022 adds another layer to that trade-off. Orientation, glazing and insulation decisions that meet the standard cheaply on one dwelling can get expensive fast once a design is forcing extra units onto a tight footprint. A feasibility that only counts dwellings and ignores how each one will actually sell, rent or perform misses half the picture.

The right number of dwellings is the number the site, the buyers and the build cost can all support at once, not the number a concept plan can technically fit.

Where do development projects lose money?

In the gap between the drawings and the ground.

The common failures are predictable. A design priced before the site is understood. A structure that looks efficient on paper but is expensive to build. Consultant and planning costs underestimated at the start. A construction program that ignores staging, access, or the cost of holding the site while approvals drag. None of these show up in a glossy render. All of them show up in the final number.

Shared and party walls are a common margin killer. They look simple in a concept plan, but the engineering, acoustic separation and fire rating they need can quietly add cost that never made it into the early numbers. Site access is another: a tight or single-access block limits which plant can get in, when concrete can pour, and how many trades can work at once, and that stretches the program on every dwelling, not just the hard one. Duplicate services, individual meters, separate stormwater connections and driveway crossovers per dwelling, add up fast on a site that was priced as one job instead of several.

A builder who has delivered developments prices the buildability, not just the picture, and flags the expensive decisions while they’re still cheap to change.

When should a builder enter a development?

Earlier than most people think.

By the time drawings are finished, most of the cost is already locked in. Bringing construction and feasibility thinking in early, alongside the designer and the planner, is where a build cost gets shaped rather than just discovered. That’s the role of preconstruction: test the site, the yield, the buildability and the numbers before the project commits to a direction it can’t easily unwind.

A design that’s never been priced by the people building it tends to go back for another round once real quotes come in. Every one of those redesign loops costs time with the planner, the engineer and the draftsperson, and each one pushes the program and the numbers further from where the project started. Testing buildability and cost alongside the design catches that misalignment while a change is still a mark-up on a drawing, not a variation once it’s on site.

What does a first feasibility conversation cover?

The site, the intent and the numbers.

A useful first conversation looks at what the block is zoned for, what the overlays and setbacks allow, roughly what yield is realistic, and where the cost pressure is likely to sit. It also looks at buildability early: access for plant, shared walls, staging and how many dwellings the services can actually carry. It stays honest about what still needs a planner, a surveyor or a soil test before any number means much. You don’t need a finished design. You need enough to know whether the site is worth developing before you spend on drawings that assume it is.

How do you start with Gidaya?

Send the site. The address or general location, the zoning if you know it, any planning advice you’ve had, and what you’re trying to build, dual occupancy, townhouses or a boutique project. From there the first conversation works out whether the block stacks up and what the next step is.

Browse Projects, read About Gidaya Group, or send the site details through Contact. If the feasibility doesn’t work, that’s the most valuable thing to learn first, not last.

Frequently asked questions

What developments does Gidaya build?

Dual occupancy, townhouses and boutique developments from $500k across Melbourne and Victoria.

What decides how many dwellings my block can take?

The planning controls, zoning, overlays, setbacks and open space, interacting with the physical site, access, services and fall. Not frontage alone.

Can Gidaya help before I have a planning permit?

Yes. Early feasibility tests whether the site supports the project before design and permit costs are committed.

What makes a development lose money?

Designing before the site is understood, underestimating consultant and holding costs, and pricing the picture rather than the buildability.

Does Gidaya do feasibility?

Yes, through preconstruction: the site, yield, buildability and numbers tested before the project commits.

What’s the difference between dual occupancy and a townhouse development?

Mostly scale. Dual occupancy is usually two dwellings on one site. A townhouse or boutique development means more dwellings, more subdivision and more coordination across trades and consultants.

Does maximising yield always mean a better return?

No. Pushing for extra dwellings can shrink private open space and amenity enough to hurt resale or rental value, so the better outcome balances yield against what each dwelling can realistically achieve in the market.

Talk through your development with Gidaya Group.

Written by the Gidaya Group team. Checked for accuracy before publishing. Updated 2026-07-08.