A house or semi that needs more space.
We look at an addition at the back or above, within the mapped height and the wall height limits for houses. It also needs to suit the outlook from the beach and park.
Tamarama / Compact coastal lots near the gully
Builders in Tamarama for homes shaped by coastal and gully mapping
Six in ten Tamarama homes are flats. A large part of the suburb's housing land also lies inside the State's coastal use area. We plan additions and new homes around those rules and the gully's flood mapping, then build them.
SOL / Bondi Beach / Completed 2025
01 / The proposition
Compact lots, coastal obligations
For Tamarama owners who want more from a compact coastal site, design and construction sit with one team, so the coastal controls shape the drawings from the first meeting.
The 2021 Census counted 1,478 residents here. Of occupied homes, 62.0% were flats or apartments, 23.3% separate houses and 16.5% semis or terraces.
Up or down
Finding extra room on a Tamarama lot
Owners often ask whether to add a storey or dig beneath the house. Council's excavation rules accept a basement beneath a house only when the site offers no other spot for cars and storage. One level is the most it allows. On a steep site council expects a split level design in place of deep cuts or raised fill.
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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 Tamarama planning
Coastal rules that change a Tamarama design
In our map sample, medium density zoning covers most Tamarama housing land, usually with 9.5 metres as the height limit. Lots differ, so we read the controls for yours.
- 01
The coastal use area.
Where it applies, a development application must address public access to the beach and headland, views from public places, overshadowing and the overall scale of what you build. A design that answers these early avoids redrawing later.
- 02
Mapped coastal risk lots.
Lots on council's inundation or geotechnical layers need a specialist risk report before council will assess a new house, a major addition or a pool.
- 03
Gully flooding and cover.
Council's development plan names Tamarama Gully, with Bronte Gully, as the places in Waverley where overland flooding can meet an insurer's standard definition of flood. We check the property's flood status before setting levels.
- 04
Few conservation areas.
In our sample of the heritage map, almost no Tamarama housing land falls within a conservation area and one house is individually listed. Coastal hazard identification is the bigger question for a complying development certificate here.
Sequence
What happens before a Tamarama design is drawn
Coastal lots carry obligations that are easy to miss until a development application is lodged. We clear them in this order.
Place the lot on council's coastal layers.
If it falls in the coastal inundation or geotechnical risk mapping, council wants a specialist assessment with the application. We brief that consultant before the layout is settled.
Get the flood picture for the gully.
We ask council for the property's flood details. These can fix minimum floor levels and the shape of any lower room.
Plan excavation around the neighbours.
Waverley keeps excavation 900 millimetres from side boundaries and asks for full waterproofing below the water table. With flats often next door, we allow for support and monitoring of the buildings alongside.
Your position
Enlarging what stands or replacing it
Tamarama projects tend to start from one of these positions. The coastal checks come first in both.
Replacing the house entirely.
We test the whole envelope against the coastal use area matters, the lot's floor area cap and council's excavation limits. Only then do we price the build.
Explore our work
A finished duplex close to Tamarama
[ SOL ]
Bondi Beach, NSW
Completed 2025
Completed 2025. Architecture and construction by SHORE with interiors by Tina Kosta Studio.
- Architecture
- SHORE
- Interiors & facade
- Tina Kosta Studio
[ BELLA ]
Clovelly, NSW
Under Construction
Under construction. A dual occupancy with architecture, interiors and construction by SHORE.
- Architecture
- SHORE
- Interiors & facade
- SHORE
Close by
SOL, a finished duplex in Bondi Beach
SOL stands in neighbouring Bondi Beach, roughly 1.0 km north of Tamarama on a straight line between suburb centres. Our team drew the architecture and built it; the interiors came from Tina Kosta Studio. Work finished in 2025. The duplex is outside Tamarama.
Further south, BELLA in Clovelly is still being built, about 1.6 km off by the same method.
Questions to bring early
Questions from Tamarama owners
Does the coastal use area stop us adding a storey?
No single rule bans it. The height map still sets the limit. On top of that, the development application has to show how the addition treats public views, overshadowing and the coastal setting, which we test early.
Can we fit a garage under the house?
Only if council agrees the site has nowhere else for cars and storage. Even then Waverley limits it to one level, with a ceiling height of 2.1 metres and an area sized to the cars, bins and storage it serves.
Is SOL a Tamarama project?
No. SOL was finished in 2025 on a Bondi Beach site. We show it as nearby work.
First step
