A granny flat in your backyard. A second rent, every week.

A qualifying small second home of up to 60 m² does not need a planning permit in many Victorian cases. Check the current zone, overlay exemptions and other applicable controls at the address; the absence of one trigger does not remove every other requirement. A building permit is still required. Start with the Victorian Government’s small second homes guidance and obtain an address-specific assessment.

In the applicable residential zones, a lot below 300 m² triggers a planning permit requirement for a small second dwelling. A lot of 300 m² or more does not by itself establish that no permit is needed: overlays and other applicable controls still need checking. The 550–600 m² figure used in our buying strategy is a commercial screening preference, not a universal legal minimum. A measured layout must also show that the proposed home fits.

Our 30 m² one-bedroom is $110,000 + GST in Victoria and the 60 m² is from $155,000 + GST, both on a fixed-price contract split into pre-build paperwork and the build contract itself. Queensland is $140,000 and $215,000 + GST because the approval pathway and freight differ. What no fixed price can cover is what the site itself imposes — rock removal, hard-surface cutting, a deep sewer connection or a long service run are quoted per site, so insist on those being priced before you sign.

In the suburbs we build in, a completed unit lets for roughly $350–$500 a week, and the properties under our management typically go from listing to signed lease in 7–10 days. On the whole property, the 212 granny-flat additions in the transaction dataset we publish openly recorded a median gross rental yield after works of 5.79%, against 5.16% for the 85 purchases that received a cosmetic renovation only (n=345, settled January 2023 to September 2025, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20095886). Those are historical outcomes on completed projects, not a forecast.

No. It is an annualised cash-on-cash return on the cash actually put in, and every input behind it is disclosed on this page: a 60 m² build at $155,000 + GST, an 80% construction loan against the build contract at 6.5% interest-only, $500 a week rent, and $42,200 of cash in. It is gross and pre-tax: council rates, insurance, management fees and vacancy are not deducted. It is not a property yield and it should never be compared against one — a property yield divides by the land and the house as well. Measured that way, our published median is 5.79%.

Because they are dividing by a different number. A 30 m² unit at $380 a week produces $19,760 a year, which is about 18% of a $110,000 build cost — but that denominator excludes the land and the existing house that make the build possible, plus GST, holding costs, vacancy and management. It is a legitimate figure for deciding whether to spend the marginal $110,000, and a misleading one if presented as a yield: it overstates the return on the money actually at risk by roughly three to four times. Read the denominator before you read the percentage.

About 8 weeks on site in Victoria with straightforward access, and up to 12 weeks where crane or side access is restricted; Queensland runs about 3 months because the approval pathway differs. The useful part is that the design and approvals run in parallel with a purchase settlement, so if you start the paperwork when the contract goes unconditional the build can begin the week you get the keys rather than two months later.

The unit is built as a Class 1a permanent dwelling on a raft slab to AS 2870, not a relocatable, which is the structural precondition for a lender to value and mortgage it. What we cannot tell you is what your valuer will actually assess it at — we have seen completed units valued both above and below build cost on comparable projects in the same corridor in the same year. We hold no Australian Credit Licence, we do not recommend lenders, and we would treat any builder or agent who promises you a specific “as-if-built” valuation or a specific amount of releasable equity as a warning sign.

Not while a limited recourse borrowing arrangement is on foot. The ATO’s position (SMSFR 2012/1) is that adding a second dwelling changes the character of the acquirable asset, which the borrowing rules do not permit — so a fund with a loan outstanding is generally restricted to move-in-ready stock. That is a property constraint we can describe; whether to buy through a fund at all is a question for a licensed financial adviser and a registered tax agent, and PremiumRea holds no Australian Financial Services Licence.

Yes, and we would rather you did. The free Granny Flat Site Planner takes any Victorian or Queensland address and measures the side access corridor, the fence and easement clearances, and whether a 30 m² or 60 m² unit physically fits clear of the easements — no login. The Granny Flat Checker runs the same address against the current Small Second Dwelling rules. Both are linked from this page, and both will tell you no when the answer is no.