Granny flats in better position than ever to deliver multitude of benefits to the tight housing marketSummit HomesAdvertiser ContentMon, 16 June 2025 6:00AM
Redefining modern living, granny flats are offering new opportunities to expand the property market in Western Australia.
Following amendments to the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage’s Residential Design Codes in 2024, granny flats – also known as ancillary dwellings – have grown in popularity as an investment and housing choice.
“It’s an economical way to get into the investor market,” Summit Homes Granny Flats General Manager Adrian Sutton said.
“If you currently own a property and there’s viable land to put an ancillary dwelling on it, this can be a really good entry point for a property investor to start with.”
The revised codes were introduced last April to help boost housing supply by removing required planning approval for granny flats up to 70sqm on residential zoned land.
The minimum lot size requirement of 350sqm was also removed to increase housing diversity, and ancillary dwellings will also be allowed in grouped dwellings and strata lots.
“The properties which could accommodate an ancillary dwelling have opened with the strata sites,” Mr Sutton said.
“If you have a strata lot, if you have the old duplex-style home, you can now put an ancillary dwelling at the back.
“If you have a triplex site, if there are enough square metres to allow for the site coverage, you could place an ancillary dwelling on that property as well.”
Mr Sutton said the popularity of granny flats had grown over the past 10 years, but the changes had furthered this growth by enabling local investors to build an ancillary dwelling more easily.
“A lot of people already have vacant land or available space on their existing property so this opens up opportunities to build an ancillary dwelling,” he said.
If time and location are factors, Mr Sutton said building on an existing property was quicker than waiting for land at greenfields developments being created in outer suburbs; it often took a long time for those to come to fruition and for titles to become available.
While providing a solution to WA’s high demand for housing and low vacancies in the rental market, the rising popularity of granny flats achieves a desirable rental yield for investors while also helping family members into the property market.
“There are some clients who are building a granny flat for their children to move into as opposed to buying a block of land and building a new home on it for their children,” Mr Sutton said.
“This gives parents peace of mind.
“We also have clientele who are building the granny flat for themselves to move into, then they will rent out the main house.”
“A granny flat also offers the flexibility of short-stay accommodation or a home for an ageing parent, which has many benefits.
“With an ageing parent living in a granny flat, they still have their independence, are close to the grandchildren, and it provides them with a better lifestyle, rather than potentially moving them into an aged care home.”
Mr Sutton said while ancillary dwellings had steadily grown in popularity, the amendments had led to an increase in local demand, particularly at Summit Homes.
“We did see quite a large uptake on the investor market, which was more eastern states driven a few years ago,” he said.
“Since then it’s been embraced by small local investors and owner-occupiers who now make up the majority of our market. Local investors are probably 50 per cent of our sales.
“Now, we have targets of doing 100 dwellings a year which we stick to, as this is our sweet point.”
Mr Sutton said the appeal of granny flats could be attributed to the acknowledgement of the dwelling as a homely residence.
“In the past, a lot of people thought a granny flat or an ancillary dwelling was almost a sea container type of build,” he said.
“We have a display at our office and when people come and have a look, they don’t realise how well the granny flats present and how well set out they are.
“While the majority of them are 70sqm, this still allows for a very spacious and useful kitchen, a living area, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
“For an entry point, the purchase price is about $230,000-250,000 for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom 70sqm ancillary dwelling, which is fully finished.
“By utilising our steel frame and masterwall system of construction, we can ensure the ancillary dwelling is completed in a much shorter timeframe than double-brick construction.
“This allows an investor to generate an rental income quicker, or enables the elderly parent or child to move into the dwelling sooner.”
Summit Granny Flats is Perth’s trusted builder delivering high-quality designs for your block and lifestyle, with build times reduced to six months using steel-frame construction.
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