Course Content
By the end of this course, you will be able to test a proposed development against every eligibility condition in Clause 53.25 of the Victoria Planning Provisions before any design merit is argued. The Great Design Fast Track gives an eligible scheme the Minister as responsible authority, an exemption from third party review and access to waivers on height, setback and garden area, but only when all eight conditions are met. Several of those conditions are arithmetic, including an eight dwelling floor, a two to eight storey range and NatHERS thresholds set above the building code. Two written advices, from the Office of the Victorian Government Architect and from the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions, are conditions of entry rather than attachments. Each of the seven design principles is answered with a drawing, calculation or study that an assessor can check, and the submission is assembled in the order it will be read.
Learning Outcomes
This ensures that CPD efforts align with professional regulatory requirements.
This CPD provides general guidance on professional responsibilities and documentation practices. It does not constitute legal advice or replace project-specific contractual or statutory obligations.
Compliance and Accreditation
| Framework/Body | Relevant Sections | Focus Areas |
| National Construction Code (NCC 2025 & NCC 2022) | NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H8 Livable housing design and the ABCB Standard for Livable Housing Design (Clause 1.1 exemption conditions, step free entry, door and corridor widths, ground floor sanitary compartment, reinforced bathroom walls); NCC 2025 Volume Two Section 13 Energy efficiency and the ABCB Housing Provisions Standard 2025 (7 star NatHERS minimum, heating and cooling load limits, whole of home assessment, unchanged from NCC 2022); NCC 2025 in force in Victoria from 1 May 2026 with section 10 of the Building Act 1993 (Vic) allowing NCC 2022 where design work had substantially commenced; corresponding NCC 2022 provisions where that transitional arrangement applies | Which NCC edition applies to a Victorian project and how to confirm it with the building certifier; the separation between the Code’s 7 star minimum and the planning pathway’s 8.0 star apartment average, 6.5 star floor and 7.5 star townhouse threshold; Part H8 scope for Class 1a and its Clause 1.1 exemption on sloping sites; keeping code obligations and planning eligibility criteria as separate instruments in the submission. |
| NatHERS Protocols | NatHERS star rating assessment of each dwelling; whole of home assessment; NatHERS Technical Notes on modelling apartments and attached dwellings; per dwelling ratings and development averages | Rating every dwelling rather than the development average so the 6.5 star floor for apartments can be demonstrated; identifying the worst oriented dwellings at concept; the cost of recovering a shortfall late (glazing and shading upgrades across a townhouse row); reporting the rating schedule as evidence rather than a single headline figure. |
| ABSA CPD Competency Areas | Energy efficiency regulation and compliance; thermal performance assessment; building envelope and orientation; client and design team communication | Advising design teams on the difference between the NCC minimum and a planning eligibility threshold set above it; dwelling by dwelling rating strategy for medium density housing; reading the effect of orientation, depth and glazing on the star result; documenting the ventilation strategy dwelling by dwelling. |
| Building Designers | Victoria Planning Provisions Clause 53.25 Great Design Fast Track (Amendment VC280, gazetted 7 April 2025, and Amendment VC312, gazetted 16 June 2026); Clause 53.25-1 eligibility conditions; Clause 53.25-2 waiver powers and exclusions (Clauses 45.07, 45.08, 51.03); Clause 72.01 responsible authority; Planning and Environment Act 1987 sections 64 and 82; Great Design Fast Track Design Principles version 2 (28 January 2026); NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H8 and Section 13 | Testing eligibility at concept (eight dwellings, two to eight storeys, star rating, ventilation, significance) before design merit is argued; answering each of the seven design principles with a drawing, calculation or study; sequencing the Office of the Victorian Government Architect advice and the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions feasibility advice on the critical path; arguing a height, setback or garden area waiver without losing the pathway; eliminating internal inconsistencies between the landscape, basement and area drawings. |
| NSCA 2021 (Architects) | PC20, PC31, PC32, PC33, PC42 | PC20 (assessing a project against legislation, statutory planning requirements, building codes and standards): Clause 53.25 is an eligibility gate, and the course teaches participants to test a proposed development against statutory planning requirements, the applicable NCC edition in Victoria, and the numeric thresholds that attach to them, including the cost, tenure and feasibility limbs in Module 3. PC31 (environmental sustainability): the sustainability threshold is the course’s central quantitative content, an 8.0 star NatHERS average with a 6.5 star floor for apartments and 7.5 stars for other dwellings, set above the code minimum. PC32 (planning principles and statutory planning requirements): Module 1 works directly with the Victoria Planning Provisions, the eight eligibility tests, the Minister as responsible authority, waiver powers over height, setback and garden area controls, and the exclusions. PC33 (sustainable environmental systems in conceptual design): the Healthy and Landscaped principles are taught as measurable environmental systems rather than narrative, natural ventilation per dwelling, daylight access, acoustic comfort, and deep soil and canopy provision over basement structures. PC42 (preparing planning applications that comply with planning regulations): Module 4 is an applications module, assembling a submission that satisfies OVGA design advice and DJSIR feasibility advice, presenting design quality as documented evidence, constructing a waiver argument, and eliminating the internal drawing inconsistencies that cause submissions to fail. |
| Building Surveyors | Building Act 1993 (Vic) section 10 transitional use of the previous NCC edition; NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H8 Livable housing design and Clause 1.1 exemption conditions; NCC 2025 Section 13 energy efficiency verification; planning permit conditions carried into the building permit | Confirming the applicable NCC edition for a project whose planning permit and building documentation straddle 1 May 2026; assessing Part H8 compliance and the slope exemption on Class 1a dwellings; verifying NatHERS certificates against the dwellings actually documented; recognising that planning eligibility thresholds above the Code are not building permit conditions unless the permit says so. |
| Urban Planners & Landscape Architects | Victoria Planning Provisions Clause 53.25 (purpose, application, eligibility, waivers, exemptions from sections 64 and 82 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987, transitional provision at Clause 53.25-6); Great Design Fast Track Design Principles version 2, Table 1 indicative storey ceilings by zone; Clause 72.01 responsible authority; Clauses 45.07, 45.08 and 51.03 excluded from waiver | Advising on eligibility and the significance test; the difference between the eight storey eligibility cap and the lower indicative storey ceiling for the zone; preparing the neighbourhood character, entry sequence, deep soil and canopy evidence for the Neighbourly, Welcoming and Landscaped Homes principles; resolving the basement footprint before the landscape plan so canopy claims survive scrutiny; briefing the OVGA and feasibility advice requests early enough to change the design. |
This session is designed for
Building Designers
Architects
Urban Planners
Building Surveyors
Energy Assessors
What’s Included
This course examines the Great Design Fast Track under Clause 53.25 of the Victoria Planning Provisions as a gate that a scheme passes or fails before its design quality is assessed. Eligibility is treated as arithmetic, covering the eight dwelling minimum, the two to eight storey range, the eight star apartment average with its six point five star floor, the seven point five star townhouse threshold and ventilation tested dwelling by dwelling. The seven design principles are worked through as evidence rather than narrative, from neighbourhood character and the entry sequence to deep soil, daylight, acoustic comfort, Part H8 livable housing and feasibility. Waiver powers over height, setback and garden area are set against their stated exclusions, and the written advices from the Office of the Victorian Government Architect and the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions are placed on the critical path. Two case studies, a townhouse row that failed on star rating and an apartment building that lost its canopy in the basement, apply those tests to project decisions.
Why Take This CPD Session?
Test a concept against every Clause 53.25 eligibility condition at the stage where the massing and dwelling mix can still move, before a design fee is spent twice.
Separate the planning pathway’s NatHERS, ventilation and livable housing thresholds from the NCC obligations that sit beneath them, and write each into the right instrument.
Build a submission that answers each design principle with checkable evidence, sequences the OVGA and feasibility advices early, and survives the scrutiny shown in two case studies.
Professional development is an investment in career growth and regulatory compliance. Take the next step today.