ABSTRACT
The population of Australia is growing, with the present population of 23 million in 2013 expected to grow to between 37 and 48 million by 2061 (ABS, 2013). This increase will need to be housed and while current planning policies (see Chapters 3 and 5 in this volume) direct that much of this growth will be within the existing built up area of Australian cities there will still remain an important element of new suburban growth. New suburban housing in Australia is characterised by a twostage development process that divides land development from housing development. Land developers typically acquire large parcels of peripheral urban land and then go through a subdivision process that fragments land into building lots that are allocated to residential (primarily single residential but also including medium density elements) and residential supporting (e.g. schools, shops, parks) land uses (Reynolds and Solomon, 1998). Approval of these subdivisions carry with them legal requirements to provide infrastructure services (such as roads, sewerage, water and power) as well as meeting all the legal and administrative requirements that run with the transfer of land into multiple ownership. All these requirements have to be met before any of the newly subdivided land can be on sold.
