SHORE designs and builds.
We take the project from first sketches and approval through to handover, with one team accountable for both.
Phillip Bay / Homes beside Yarra Bay
Builders in Phillip Bay, planning homes beside Yarra Bay
Phillip Bay's houses share the suburb with a beach reserve, heritage market gardens and port land. We plan each home around the street it sits in and the open land around it.
AXIS / Chifley / Completed 2025
01 / The proposition
A small pocket of houses by the bay
For a Phillip Bay home, we start with how little of the suburb is actually housing. Under half of it is zoned for homes; the rest is the Yarra Bay reserve, the Chinese Market Gardens and infrastructure land.
That makes each lot's edges matter. A home that borders a reserve or faces the bay is judged against views and open space as much as against the house next door.
Before you choose a direction
Extend, replace or add a dwelling
The Bays chapter of council's newest DCP asks for houses of one or two storeys. A dual occupancy or semi is expected to read as a single home from the street.
We test your options against those expectations early. That way you know whether an extension, a new home or a pair of dwellings suits the lot before design fees build up.
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Darling Point · residential
[ ALOFT ]
Five apartments arranged around Sydney Harbour views, with two basement levels. Completed in 2021, with architecture and interiors by Xpace.
Map locationDarling Point · Indicative location
Xpace (Architecture & Interiors) · SHORE (Construction Delivery)
Explore project details Planning in Phillip Bay
What the controls mean for your lot
Housing here is zoned low density (R2) or medium density (R3) residential. On the lots we sampled, the height limit is 9.5 metres and floor space ratios are 0.5:1 for low density and 0.75:1 for medium density. Controls differ from street to street. We confirm each one for your lot.
- 01
Character is set by The Bays.
This part of the DCP covers the residential pocket east of Bunnerong Road. It asks for one or two storeys, generous gardens and views kept open towards Botany Bay.
- 02
Heritage sits beside the houses.
Yarra Bay Beach and Reserve, the Chinese Market Gardens and the Gooriwal cultural landscape are listed. None of them showed up on the residential lots we tested, yet a lot next to them can still need heritage advice.
- 03
A CDC is possible on some lots, not all.
The housing code excludes heritage conservation areas and acid sulfate soils of Class 1 or 2, neither of which showed on most sampled house lots. A certifier still checks every exclusion, including aircraft noise contours.
- 04
Deep digging needs care.
Most housing land is mapped acid sulfate Class 4 or 5. Under the LEP, Class 4 triggers assessment for works more than 2 metres below natural ground, which can include basements and pools.
Our approach here
From first survey to a low, settled house
The early work in Phillip Bay is mostly about the soil and the streetscape. We sort out both before the floor plan is fixed.
Read the lot.
We collect the survey, title and any past approvals, then map where heritage places, reserves or the coastal overlays meet your boundary.
Follow the land.
Council wants new homes to step with the natural ground rather than sit on built up platforms. We set floor levels and any excavation with that in mind.
Shape the street front.
Parking sits behind the building line, basements stay out of sight and the front garden does the work a solid fence would do elsewhere.
Build and hand over.
Our own team carries the approved design through construction, with interiors and finishes resolved before construction begins.
Choosing a starting point
Start with us or start with your plans
Plenty of owners arrive with nothing more than a lot and a hunch. Others hold an approved scheme drawn by their own architect.
Construction of your approved plans.
Send the drawings and conditions of consent. We check buildability and price the work against what was actually approved.
Explore our work
Our nearby homes in Chifley and Matraville
![[ AXIS ]](/projects/shore/axis-card.webp)
[ AXIS ]
Chifley, NSW
Completed 2025
Completed 2025. Architecture by Superior Design; SHORE built the home and delivered interiors and facade. In Chifley, not Phillip Bay.
- Architecture
- Superior Design
- Interiors & facade
- SHORE
![[ LATTICE ]](/projects/shore/lattice-card.webp)
[ LATTICE ]
Matraville, NSW
Completed 2024
Completed 2024. Architecture, interiors and construction by SHORE. In Matraville, not Phillip Bay.
- Architecture
- SHORE
- Interiors & facade
- SHORE
What the streets hold
Mostly detached houses
Separate houses accounted for 187 of the 221 homes counted as occupied in Phillip Bay at the 2021 Census. Townhouses and apartments were a small minority.
That pattern is what council's guidance aims to keep. It shapes how a larger home or a second dwelling should present to the street.
Questions to bring early
Questions owners in Phillip Bay ask
Is a duplex possible on a Phillip Bay lot?
It depends on the zone, the lot and the approval route. The Bays chapter expects a dual occupancy to look like one home from the street. We check the lot and design the pair to meet that expectation.
Does the reserve or market garden next door affect our plans?
It can. These are listed heritage places and part of the open landscape council wants to protect. We look at the boundary, views and any heritage advice needed before settling the design.
Is aircraft noise a factor here?
Council's monitoring found louder aircraft noise from southerly runway use across Phillip Bay, La Perouse and neighbouring suburbs. We check the property's noise contour and allow for acoustic glazing and construction if the assessment calls for it.
Which SHORE homes are closest?
AXIS in Chifley, designed by Superior Design, was finished by our team in 2025. LATTICE in Matraville is one we designed and built in 2024. Taking the midpoint of each suburb, Chifley lies about 1.3 kilometres from Phillip Bay and Matraville about 1.7.
Thinking about your lot
