Builders in Randwick
Shafbuild is based in Kensington, inside Randwick City, and much of our work is a few streets from the office. We renovate and extend Randwick homes, many of them in heritage conservation areas, and deliver apartment renovations and remedial works for strata buildings along the coast.
Building in Randwick means working with Randwick City Council’s heritage controls and development control plan from the first sketch. We set the approvals strategy before design, so the project you draw is one council can approve.
Heritage controls in Randwick
Randwick’s local environmental plan lists individual heritage items and a number of heritage conservation areas, and many streets of Federation and inter-war homes fall inside them. Council’s development control plan then sets the detail: how additions sit behind the original roofline, what materials suit the street, and how much of the original house must be kept.
That changes the pathway. A heritage-listed property, or one in a conservation area, generally needs a development application with a heritage impact statement rather than a complying development certificate. Getting the design right for the streetscape first is what keeps the scope you want in the approval.
The Randwick DCP and tight lots
Beyond heritage, the DCP controls setbacks, height, landscaped area, privacy and parking. On narrow Randwick lots those controls decide whether you build out or up, where a second storey can sit, and how much garden you keep.
Access matters too. Narrow streets, shared walls on semis and terraces, and limited parking all shape scaffold, crane and delivery plans. We record the condition of neighbouring properties before work starts and plan the site around the street.
Our Randwick City projects
Heritage Home Renovation
More space, more light, a second storey extension and structural change, designed around Randwick heritage controls. Shafbuild leads consultant coordination, design strategy and the approvals pathway.
Student Accommodation
Substantial commencement works that kept an approved development from lapsing: targeted demolition, concrete works and certified evidence in two weeks.
What we build in Randwick
Heritage renovations
Renovating Federation and inter-war homes in heritage conservation areas, keeping what council wants kept and modernising what it doesn’t.
Second storey additions
Adding bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs on tight Randwick lots, with the structural read on the existing house done first.
Apartment renovations
Unit renovations in Randwick, Coogee and Maroubra blocks under strata by-laws, by a registered Class 2 builder.
Strata remedial works
Balcony waterproofing, concrete cancer repair and facade works for owners corporations in coastal buildings.
Working elsewhere in the east? See builders in the Eastern Suburbs, or next door in Bondi and Waverley, the City of Sydney and Bayside.
Randwick building questions
Do I need a DA to renovate a heritage home in Randwick?
Usually, yes. Homes that are heritage items or sit in a heritage conservation area generally can’t use the faster complying development pathway, so external changes and additions go through a development application with a heritage impact statement.
Can I add a second storey in a heritage conservation area?
Often you can, but the design has to respect the streetscape. Council typically looks at how visible the addition is from the street, its height and bulk, and whether the original front of the house is kept. We test this with heritage advice at concept stage, before you pay for full drawings.
Which suburbs do you cover in Randwick City?
All of them, including Randwick, Kensington, Kingsford, Coogee, Clovelly, Maroubra, Matraville and Malabar. Our office is in Kensington.
Do you work on strata buildings in Randwick?
Yes. We deliver apartment renovations and remedial works on Class 2 strata buildings as a registered building practitioner. See remedial and strata builders.
Start with the right approval pathway
Tell us about your Randwick property and what you want to achieve. We will tell you what the controls allow and the smartest way to get it approved.