Know What You Can Build Before You Sign
A fixed-price Pre-Purchase Planning & Risk Report checks the zoning, overlays, permit triggers and site constraints, so you know a property’s real potential and risks before you commit. Desktop Report $595, delivered in 1–2 business days, or Site Visit & Consultation $950. If you go ahead with Mancini Design, the fee is credited against your design fee.
Mancini Design provides building design, planning permits, heritage overlay applications and construction documentation from St Kilda, across Melbourne. I’m an independent building designer and registered building practitioner with 30 years in the construction industry. I don’t build, so the design is settled before you choose a builder. I work with experienced professional consultants as each project needs them.
Building design
Designing a new home, knockdown-rebuild, renovation or extension, from brief and concept through to a resolved design.
Who needs it: Homeowners and small developers who want the design worked out properly before committing to a builder.
What you get: Concept options, a developed design refined with you, and drawings ready for the permit stages.
How it starts: a free initial conversation by phone or email. A site visit and a professional assessment are charged, and lead to a written fee proposal.
Planning permits
Preparing and lodging planning permit applications under the relevant Victorian planning scheme, and responding to council’s requests for further information.
Who needs it: Anyone whose project is affected by a zone or overlay trigger, for example a Heritage Overlay, a Design and Development Overlay, or ResCode (Clauses 54 and 55) on smaller lots.
What you get: Planning drawings and the application, coordinated with consultants such as town planners where needed, managed through to council’s decision.
How it starts: a free initial conversation by phone or email. A site visit and a professional assessment are charged, and lead to a written fee proposal.
Heritage overlays
Designing and documenting changes to properties in a Heritage Overlay (Clause 43.01), so the design responds to council’s heritage policy from the start. Read the St Kilda and Port Phillip heritage guide.
Who needs it: Owners planning to demolish, extend, alter or build in a heritage area, including much of St Kilda and Port Phillip.
What you get: A heritage-responsive design and the planning application, including the information council asks for under the overlay schedule.
How it starts: a free initial conversation by phone or email. A site visit and a professional assessment are charged, and lead to a written fee proposal.
Construction documentation
Preparing the documentation your building surveyor needs for a building permit, and that builders need to price and build from.
Who needs it: Projects moving from planning approval to building permit, or projects that don’t need a planning permit at all.
What you get: Building permit drawings and documentation addressing the Building Regulations and the National Construction Code (NCC), coordinated with engineers and surveyors.
How it starts: a free initial conversation by phone or email. A site visit and a professional assessment are charged, and lead to a written fee proposal.
Other services
- Report and Consent applications where a design doesn’t meet a siting rule in Part 5 of the Building Regulations 2018.
- Passive House principles and sustainable design. Read more.
- Development design advice on feasibility, site potential and planning constraints.
- Subdivision documentation for multi-lot residential development.
- Parking waiver applications.
- Pre-Purchase Planning & Risk Report before you buy.
Design intent checks during construction (on request)
On request only, as a charged service, I check the build follows the design and give you a report documenting whether and where it has strayed. It is not a compliance, structural or building permit inspection, and I don’t manage or direct the builder. Full scope and exclusions.
Not sure whether to use an independent designer or a design-and-build company? Read the comparison.
★★★★★
“His attention to detail, understanding of construction and ability to produce clear and accurate plans makes the building process much easier… He understands what builders need and is always willing to work through any issues to achieve the right outcome.”
— John F., Google review
How much does building design cost?
There’s no honest fixed price for design work until I understand the site and the brief. Every project gets a written fee proposal setting out exactly what’s included before any work begins. The first conversation is free; a site visit and a professional assessment are charged, and that assessment is what makes an accurate fee proposal possible.
What affects the cost?
- Type and size of project: a single-storey extension is a different scope from a new multi-storey home or a unit development.
- Site constraints: overlays (heritage, design and development, flood), easements, protected trees, slope and narrow blocks all add design and approval work.
- Approvals needed: whether the project needs a planning permit, Report and Consent, section 29A demolition consent or a build-over-easement consent, and whether objections are likely.
- Consultants: town planners, engineers, surveyors and other specialists, as the project needs them.
- Level of documentation: how much detail and specification you want resolved before pricing with builders.
- Construction-stage services: builder enquiries, site visits and additional drawings or details during construction are charged at an hourly rate, because their extent can’t be known in advance. Design intent checks are optional and also charged separately.
How does the fee proposal process work?
- Free initial conversation by phone or email about your site and what you want to achieve.
- Site visit and professional assessment (charged), where I look at the site’s possibilities and constraints and give you initial feedback.
- Written fee proposal for your specific project, listing what’s included. Third-party costs are listed separately: consultants, and statutory fees such as council planning application fees, which are set by Victorian regulations.
Buying a property? The Pre-Purchase Planning & Risk Report is the one fixed-price service, with its two options shown on that page.