Adelaide Planning Consultants 2025 Watch List

As we role into a new year, we see the potential for many changes to the planning and development system in South Australia which could affect your development outcomes and property value. Housing was the hot topic of 2024 and continues to be as we start 2025. Read on to see what our planning consultants are hearing on the ground and what changes may be coming your way.

Car Parking

One of the hot topics of early 2025 is the South Australian premiers announcement of plans to change minimum garaging sizes. We foresee a coming battle between the state government, urban planners. local government, housing advocates, developers and builders on this issue as it has the potential to vastly change development in Adelaide. Increases to the width of garages brings with it a host of other changes as a knock on affect. We see that either design standards for facades will need to be relaxed or minimum allotment widths will need to be increased. Along with this building costs will clearly increase adding to the cost of living and housing crisis we are currently living through in South Australia.

Street Trees

Street Trees are always a hot topic and we don’t see things getting any easier. We have noticed a trend in 2024 towards less leniency to removal or potential damage to street trees as a result of development. This is adding significant delays to many planning applications and often requires the input of specialist arboricultural professionals who don’t come cheap. Watch this space as we head into 2025, but it is clear most of Adelaide’s Councils are ramping up urban canopy goals this is creating tension on what would normally be considered reasonable development.

Livability and Sustainability

As most now know we are seeing the first projects assessed under the NCC 2022’s ‘Modern Homes Provisions’ are starting construction. This adds additional requirements for most new homes to be more sustainability and more ‘livable’. Energy efficiency requirements have increased and step free access are a couple of the minimum requirements of new homes among many others. We will continue to see how this affects new development but expect to pay more for construction and have more back and forth with planners. designers and other professionals during your planning and building assessments in 2025.

Alternative Housing

New granny flat rules are now in place and we are seeing the first applications come through for larger and more self sufficient granny flats. We expect 2025 to be a big year for this style of development as investors and ‘mum and dads’ see the benefit adding a rental option like a granny flat to their properties. We are also seeing more alternative housing options being pushed and the planning code is expected to evolve as more alternative options come in to address the rise in unaffordable housing across SA.

To follow along and find out more about planning issues, hear client stories or learn more about the development process make sure to follow any of our social media channels to stay updated. We are waiting for your call for assistance on any project requiring a planning and development consultant.