Building design & drafting in Bentleigh.

What's built here

Bentleigh is an interwar suburb, and unusually intact. Californian bungalows dominate, with Spanish Mission, Old English and Tudor Revival, and Moderne interspersed, plus Edwardian dwellings closer to the shopping strip. Glen Eira's own Heritage Review of Bentleigh and Carnegie documented it as a discrete interwar pocket surrounded by postwar development — a product of the electrified rail line.

The planning context

Here is the live tension. Council adopted its own Bentleigh Major Activity Centre Structure Plan in June 2024 — and then planning control was taken over by the state government's Activity Centres Program, with new state-imposed built-form controls expected. An interim Design and Development Overlay (DDO8) has applied to the commercial core since 2018. If you are planning something of scale near Centre Road, the ground is genuinely moving.

Controls that actually apply in Bentleigh

• Heritage Overlay HO69 — Bentleigh Residential Precinct — Confirmed through Amendment C190 and adopted in March 2021. The single most consequential control for residential work here.
• Neighbourhood Character Overlay — Glen Eira's NCO framework came in through Amendment C87 in early 2013 and replaced the older significant character areas approach. Where it applies, the character argument is the application.
• DDO8 — Interim built-form control over the commercial core since 2018.

Check what sits over your own title in two minutes, free: search your address on the Victorian Government's planning property report. Send it to us and we can usually tell you whether a permit is likely from one conversation.

What we typically do in Bentleigh

Heritage-sensitive extensions and renovations inside HO69; dual occupancy and townhouse infill on non-contributory lots; apartment and townhouse work in the walkable catchment around Centre Road.

Whatever the type, the documentation is the same discipline: architectural drafting drawn to be built, town planning drawings council can assess first time, and working drawings a builder can price without padding.

Planning controls change — amendments are gazetted regularly. Everything above was accurate at the time of writing, but confirm current controls for your specific address before relying on them.

Talk to us about your Bentleigh project

Send us the address and the planning property report and we will tell you what applies — before you commit to anything. Get in touch, or see everywhere else we work.