How Planning Overlays Affect Your House Relocation Project

Before you fall in love with a block, it’s worth knowing what planning overlays apply to it. Overlays don’t usually rule out a relocated home, but they can add requirements you’ll want to know about early.

Checking overlays yourself with the council mapping tools below is free. If you’d rather bring in a certifier, Project BA’s certification services can guide you through council approval for your removal home.

What is a planning overlay?

A planning overlay is an extra layer of rules a council (or the state) applies to certain land, sitting on top of the normal zoning for that property. Overlays exist to manage specific risks or values attached to a piece of land, common ones include:

• Bushfire hazard overlay, land identified as bushfire-prone, which can trigger a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) assessment and construction requirements.
• Flood overlay, land affected by flooding, which can affect minimum floor heights and site works.
• Heritage or character overlay, land or buildings recognised for historical or streetscape character, which can affect what can be built, removed, or how a building must look.
• Waterway, vegetation or other environmental overlays, depending on the council, there can be several more, covering things like erosion prone areas, extractive resources, or scenic amenity.

A single property can sit under more than one overlay at once, and exactly which overlays exist (and what they require) is set by each individual council or planning scheme. That’s why a generic answer isn’t much use, and the right move is always to check the specific block.

Why this matters for a house relocation

When you relocate a house onto a new block, that house has to go through the same building approval process as any other new building on that land. If the block carries a bushfire, flood, heritage or other overlay, the overlay’s requirements become part of that approval process. Depending on what applies, it can affect things like:

• Whether a bushfire assessment is required, and what construction standard the house needs to meet once relocated.
• The minimum height the house needs to be set at, if the block is flood affected.
• Whether there are extra approval steps or restrictions tied to a heritage or character overlay, particularly if the destination block itself is heritage-listed (a separate question from whether the house being moved is heritage listed).

None of this means a block is off the table. It means it’s worth knowing about before you commit to a house or a settlement date, not after.

How to check your own property’s overlays

Most Queensland and NSW councils publish an interactive online mapping tool. You typically:

1. Go to the council’s planning scheme or “eplan” mapping tool (linked by council below).
2. Search the property by address or lot/plan number.
3. Turn on the overlay layers (bushfire, flood, heritage etc. are usually listed as separate layers you can toggle).
4. Note which overlays, if any, show up over the block.

These tools are free and publicly available, and give you a first read on what might apply. They’re a starting point, not a final answer, some show general risk categories rather than site-specific assessment detail, and a couple of the tools linked below don’t deep-link straight to a single property from a plain URL. If a tool is unclear or won’t load a specific address, council’s planning department can talk you through it directly.

Council overlay and planning scheme mapping tools

Use the table below to jump straight to the mapping tool for your council. Where we have visibility of a relocatable home bond amount or general asbestos stance from past Mackay & Sons projects in that area, it’s noted too, but always confirm current figures directly with council, they change.

* “Generally allowed” reflects that council’s planning scheme, not a green light on its own. Asbestos-clad homes still need to meet Mackay & Sons’ own removal requirements before relocation, see our Asbestos guide for details. Bond amounts and council positions can change. Always confirm current figures directly with the relevant council before budgeting for your project.

What overlays commonly mean once you dig in

A few of the more common overlays, in plain English: Bushfire overlay. If a block is mapped as bushfire-prone, a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) assessment usually forms part of the building approval, and the result can affect construction requirements for the relocated house. This is common enough for relocation projects that we’ve covered it in its own guide: Bushfire Overlay And BAL: What It Means For Your Removal Home. Flood overlay. Flood-affected land often comes with a minimum finished floor height requirement, sometimes referred to as a flood immunity level. For a relocated house, that can mean the house needs to sit higher on its new stumps or slab than it did on its original site. (General guidance, not company-verified fact, confirm actual flood level requirements with council and your certifier for the specific property.) Heritage or character overlay. These protect either specific buildings or the general streetscape character of an area. If your destination block sits in a heritage or character area, there can be design or approval conditions attached to a new (or newly arrived) building there. This is a separate question from whether the house you’re moving has any heritage listing of its own. (General guidance, heritage and character rules vary significantly by council, always check the specific overlay conditions that apply.) Other overlays. Waterway, vegetation, extractive resource and scenic amenity overlays (among others) can also apply depending on the council and the block. If council’s mapping tool shows an overlay you don’t recognise, it’s worth asking council directly what it means for a new building on that site, rather than guessing.

Confirm before you commit

Checking a council’s overlay map is a genuinely useful first step, and we’d encourage every prospective relocation client to do it early. But it’s a starting point, not a final answer. The overlays that apply to your block, and exactly what they require, are confirmed through council and your own certifier or engineer as part of the formal Building Approval process, not from a mapping tool alone. Mackay & Sons can assess whether a house is a practical candidate for relocation and manage the moving and siting work itself. Overlay requirements, site suitability for building purposes, and certification are confirmed independently by council and your certifier or engineer, this guide is informational and isn’t a substitute for that process. Request a quote →  •  Call (07) 3888 9399 Want the broader relocation picture first? Download the complete guide or browse our other resources.