Brisbane City Council Approval for Carports & Patios

Brisbane City Council is the largest council in Australia by population, and most Sunstate jobs are lodged with it. Its planning scheme is Brisbane City Plan 2014.

What decides it

Three things, in this order:

• Mean height of the structure. What counts is the mean height, rather than the height at the ridge or the gutter. That is why a flyover patio gets a closer look than a skillion, and a gable carport needs approval more often than a flat one.
• How close it sits to your boundary. You can build to within 500mm of a boundary with your neighbour’s written agreement.
• What sits over your property in the planning scheme. Character and flood overlays come up most often in Brisbane. They belong to the land, whatever you are building on it.

Floor area alone does not decide it, even though many answers online assume it does.

How long it takes

2–6 weeks in the ordinary case. If the job needs a relaxation (a concession on setback or height), allow up to another four.

What we do

We prepare the drawings, lodge the application and deal with the council. If something needs negotiating, we negotiate it. You don’t have to chase a reference number or explain a setback to a planner.

At completion a certifier inspects the structure and signs it off. That makes it a legal structure, so there is nothing to disclose or discount when you sell.

Send us your address

We can’t tell you whether your carport needs approval without your address, because the overlays are property-specific.

Send us the address and we will tell you where you stand before you spend anything.