The density curve
The first additional dwelling is the most expensive one you will ever buy — and the answer differs by suburb.
Schedule 2 of the determination is a grid: about 105 suburbs down the side, eight dwelling-count bands across the top. The rate you pay is selected by the total number of dwellings after the variation, not by how many you are adding — and it falls as the total rises.
That produces a curve most people get wrong, because the per-dwelling rate applies to every additional dwelling, not just the marginal one.
So in O'Connor, two dwellings is close to the worst configuration available: you pay the highest rate in the schedule and get the least product to spread it over. In Chapman, two dwellings works. Same rules, opposite answers, and the only way to know is to have the schedule.
What the curve does not tell you
It prices the charge. It does not tell you what you can actually build. Zone, block size, plot ratio, the density targets in the Residential Zones Technical Specifications, private open space, solar access, parking and the shape of the block all constrain the achievable yield — and a three-dwelling scheme on a 600 m² block may be arithmetically attractive and physically impossible.
Use the curve to decide which configurations are worth designing. Then get someone to design them.
Last reviewed 1 August 2026. Every figure here should be verified against the current instrument — see sources and method.
Other explainers
- Residual land value
- Why unimproved value is your floor
- The 75% rule, and the missing middle remission
- The $1.28 rule
- Time is a cost
- Why “DA approved” may be worth nothing
- Former Mr Fluffy blocks
- Reading a Crown lease purpose clause
- What MPA 04 changed on 1 July 2026
- The Pattern Book
- Buyer incentives from 1 July 2026