Know what you can build, before you commit.

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About

An independent town planning advisory practice.

BDK Planning serves clients across New South Wales, with particular focus on Sydney's eastern suburbs. The practice provides early-stage planning advice for residential and small-scale development.

We help owners, buyers and developers understand what a property allows, what constrains it, and whether a proposal is realistic, before committing to design, approvals or a purchase. Every assessment is grounded in the current controls and written to be understood.

What you get

The envelope, and what fits inside it.

Height, floor space ratio, setbacks and minimum lot size set what a site can accommodate. The useful question is usually not whether you can build, but what you can build.

That's what a BDK Planning report sets out: the permitted envelope, the constraints that reduce it, and a considered position on what's realistically achievable.

What you can build

Every site frames a different set of possibilities.

We establish what the site can support, and identify the pathway that makes the most of it.

Why this practice

Advice at the point where it changes the decision.

Most planning advice arrives late, after an architect is engaged, after a concept is drawn, sometimes after contracts are exchanged. BDK Planning works earlier, where knowing what a site allows still shapes the outcome.

Professional Advice

Experienced town planning advice, applying the current NSW framework to your specific site.

Advisory by design

Early-stage planning advice. We read the site, weigh the options, and set out what's realistically worth pursuing, before you commit to design or approvals.

Considered

Every property is read on its own facts. You receive reasoning, not a template, in plain language, with the basis shown.

For buyers, investors & developers

Know what a site is worth before you commit to it.

An independent read on permissibility, constraints and development potential, before you commit.

Services

Three fixed-fee services, by how far along you are.

Before you buy a site, engage an architect, or commit to a development idea, it helps to know what the planning framework permits. BDK Planning identifies the controls, constraints and risks relevant to your property, and sets out the realistic pathways, so you can decide early, while your options are open.

Check

Planning Check

$450 fixed fee
Before you make an offer
  • Zoning and permitted uses
  • Height, floor space ratio and minimum lot size
  • Whether your intended use is permissible
  • Key constraints: heritage, flood, bushfire, easements
  • A clear summary and recommended next step
Typically 48 hours
Due diligence

Pre-Purchase Due Diligence

$1,200 fixed fee
Before you exchange
  • Everything in the Planning Check, in depth
  • Applicable controls and constraints mapped in full
  • A risk register of what could limit or complicate development
  • Any development potential advertised in the listing, tested against the actual controls
  • Planning matters worth raising with your solicitor or conveyancer
Confirmed at scopingComplex sites $1,800–2,400
Potential

Development Potential

from $2,500 quoted per site
Deciding what to build
  • Development scenarios compared
  • Indicative yield read from the controls
  • A reasoned highest-and-best-use opinion
  • Recommended pathway for each option
  • A planning study, not a financial feasibility
Quoted per site
How it works

Send an address. Get a considered answer.

A clear, fixed-fee sequence. Scope, fee and turnaround are confirmed in writing before any work begins.

STEP 01

Enquiry

Send the property address and what you're weighing up. There's no charge to enquire.

STEP 02

Assessment

Controls and constraints researched against your question: the LEP, DCP and relevant policies.

STEP 03

Report

A clear written position: findings, risks and next steps. A short call to talk it through if useful.

Who this is for

Anyone weighing a property decision before committing to it.

Buyers and investors

Understand what a site genuinely allows, and whether advertised potential is real, before you exchange.

Homeowners

Can you add a second dwelling, go up a storey, or subdivide? A straight answer, without engaging a full design team first.

Buyers agents

An independent planning check you can put in front of a client, fast enough to work inside an offer window.

Architects and builders

Confirm the envelope before you draw. A planning read on feasibility, early, when changing course is still cheap.

Landowners

You've held the site for years and the rules have changed. Find out what it's worth doing now.

Small developers

Scenario testing and yield before you commit to an acquisition or a scheme.

Coverage

Anywhere in NSW. Deepest in the eastern suburbs.

The work is desktop, so the planning system is the same wherever the site sits. That means fast turnaround, and no travel on the invoice.

WaverleyWoollahraRandwickCity of SydneyBaysideInner WestCanada BayNorthern BeachesAnywhere in NSW
Get advice

Start with the address.

Tell us the property and what you're trying to work out. We'll confirm which service fits, the fixed fee and the turnaround before any work begins. There's no charge to enquire.

Prefer email? info@bdkplanning.com.au

The more specific the question, the more useful the answer.