‘Co-located housing’: A new housing model that has the potential to take off

Touted as a solution to increase density without changing a neighbourhood’s character, this housing model might be a significant part of Australia’s housing strategy going forward. 

As Australia grapples with a housing shortage, every solution is being brought to the table in an attempt to ramp up building. But the challenge is to create these new homes in a way that doesn’t drastically change the surrounding communities.  

Now, a new model is being examined as a solution for bringing more homes to traditionally suburban neighbourhoods. 

South Australia has formally adopted a change to its planning laws to introduce “co-located housing” to Adelaide’s suburbs. The aim is to allow more homes to be built in established suburbs without impacting their existing character or heritage.  

Six SA councils that worked on the policy are now invited to apply the changes to their council areas and zones, before the policy is expanded to other councils.  

With recent ABS data revealing an 8.8% drop in new home approvals from February to March, reaching just 15,220, the co-located housing model could see other states adopting it too, if it proves a smoother way to get more homes on the ground in existing communities. 

We take a look at what exactly co-located housing is, what it looks like and whether it could take off across the country.

What is co-located housing?  

The term “co-located housing” is currently unique to South Australia, but it shares many of the principles of “co-housing”. The state is also using the term “bluefield housing” to describe the type of development that it’s aiming to encourage. 

In simple terms, co-located housing looks and feels like a single-family home but operates legally and financially like a small group of units. Co-located housing is still a small multi-dwelling building, with a minimum of two units but potentially more. This is essentially what defines co-housing as well.

But where co-located housing differs from co-housing is in its aim to retain, alter and extend an existing structure to create the new housing, instead of demolishing a house and subdividing the site to build multiple homes. 

Co-located housing nvolves retaining, altering and extending an existing structure to create new housing. Picture: Getty

---

Associate professor of architecture at UniSA Damian Madigan coined the term “bluefield housing” through his own PhD research work and for the past four years, he’s worked with the SA government and local councils to test the model, which eventually led to writing SA’s Future Planning Code Amendment that has just been implemented.

He described the model as an alternative to “knock down rebuild intensification in the suburbs”.  

“This is a model that looks to the patterns of alterations and additions that people have been doing for generations and allows them to make multiple homes out of that building, rather than just making a single house bigger,” Mr Madigan said.  

According to him, co-located housing is not fencing off the building into smaller compartments such as a residential apartment building or units stacked side-by-side.  

Instead, as it is made up of alterations and additions to an existing home, it is intended to look and feel a single-family home but operate as a small block of units.  

“While people have been able to do granny flats or accessory units in their backyards over the years, there’s nothing that has been done to allow that type of smaller footprint home to be done in the backyard and have it in individual ownership – they always get tied to the existing property,” Mr Madigan said.   

“So, we’re looking at ways of providing another option to put on the table to create smaller footprint, infill dwellings in suburbs without changing the character of them.”  

Mr Madigan also said it’s not about “guilting people” who may already live in knockdown rebuilds, instead it’s about introducing another housing model to the mix.  

“If people are worried about what it’s going to be like in their neighbourhood, it’s going to be very similar to an alterations or additions project for one house,” he said.  

“The houses can’t be bigger, they won’t fit the rules. It’s more households but it’s not more people and that’s a really important thing.”

How does it work in practice?  

As the model is relatively new, SA has been at the forefront of implementing planning policies in place to make it a reality. 

In this case, there are certain guidelines that must be met, including having a minimum of 24sqm of communal open space per dwelling on the block of land, and safe pedestrian access.  

There’s also a requirement for at least two off-street car parking spaces for co-located housing comprising three or more bedrooms, with all car parking to be in a shared arrangement. 

Six SA councils are now invited to adopt the new planning amendment. Picture: Getty

---

“What we’re saying is if applicants can follow those same rules that they have to follow currently for side setbacks and rear setbacks, maximum heights, maximum sight coverage for an alterations and additions project, we will consider allowing you to do that to create one or more additional dwellings on the block,” Mr Madigan said. 

“But the kicker is that you have to retain the original house on the block, whether it’s heritage listed or not and you incorporate that work into the entire development like you do in an alterations and additions project.”  

The second important aspect of SA’s laws is that mature trees on the block must be retained and the houses designed around them – ensuring a single, shared garden space.  

“If there isn’t a mature tree on site that you can work around, or if working around it would result in a bad outcome, then you can remove that tree but you still have to design the housing around a high quality shared garden that is big enough to have a medium or large tree at maturity,” Mr Madigan said.  

“It’s about providing an alternative infill model to knock down rebuild where everything goes. It’s a way of maintaining low-rise character and scale but also suburban tree canopy.” 

Changes needed to implement co-housing and co-located housing

The ACT has also been at the forefront of investigating new ways of allowing multi-unit dwelling to exist in traditionally single-family neighbourhoods. 

In fact, it was one architectural project in the territory that spurred the government to look at planning changes.  

Architect Brett Lowe worked on Stellulata Cohousing, which was first approved through the territory’s government Demonstration Housing Project in May 2019 to test whether the model could be suitable for adoption across the ACT.  

A new build, the proposed design however had various changes to the Territory Plan because at the time, three dwellings on the one block and only two parking spaces wasn’t permitted under rules for Residential Zone 1.  

“There was no law that allowed it when we commenced and since we started the project of Stellulata, we had to have the ACT territory plan laws amended to allow this co-housing development on the particular site and that was all done within the framework of the demonstration housing initiative for the ACT,” Mr Lowe said.  

After that lengthy process, the plan variation 376 was approved in November 2021 through the Ainslie Precinct Code, which now allows a minimum of two car spaces for co-housing developments in the area.  

Could the model be adopted more widely across Australia?

In SA, the model was originally designed for older suburbs where there is little infill policy to support it.  

“We know these suburbs are getting increasingly expensive and the houses are getting larger through alterations and additions,” Mr Madigan said.  

“We started it there first but what I’d really like to see, is that it gets applied, more, broadly. 

“If you have a 50s house, or a 60s or 70s house or really any era of house that if we can, reuse those and retain as much as possible and add new houses in the process, that would be a really good thing to achieve.”  

Originally, the model was conceived primarily for downsizers, but Mr Madigan says there is appeal across a range of buyers, especially from an affordability point of view.  

This can certainly include older people coming together because their property no longer suits them but they’re nowhere near ready for care.  

In light of today’s affordability challenges, other cohorts are seeing the appeal. 

“Young adults are going in together to buy a property and share that house. This is a way of doing that but without it being a share house, because you’ll have your individual ownership across the block,” Mr Madigan said.  

It also appeals to those seeking multigenerational living arrangements, such as parents living with adult children or grandparents. 

“We’re not suggesting this is going to solve the housing crisis by any means, but it’s just adding another tool in the kit to be able to provide some smaller more affordable options in the suburbs for people to purchase and then hopefully rent as well,” Mr Madigan said.  

Are you interested in buying or building new? Check out our New Homes section.