New South Wales is rolling out a suite of architect-designed, ready-to-build mid-rise apartment plans that the Minns government says will speed up construction and help chip away at the state’s deepening housing shortage.

The Minns administration on has released nine new “pattern book” designs, in other words, pre-approved architectural templates for apartment buildings ranging from three to six stories.

The mid-rise offerings follow eight low-rise designs unveiled in July and represent the next phase of what the government calls a “world-leading” approach to moving housing more quickly through the planning pipeline.

State officials say the new patterns are intended to counter more than a decade of stalled housing policy under the previous government. A recent NSW Productivity Commission report found Sydney is losing young residents at roughly twice the rate it’s attracting them—a trend economists attribute in part to soaring housing costs.

The newly released designs include four layouts for small lots, three for larger parcels, and two tailored for corner sites. Developed by architectural firms from Australia and New Zealand, the patterns aim to support a range of household, from first-time buyers and young families to downsizers, while also adhering to national liveable-housing standards. The government says the apartments maximise natural light and ventilation and are engineered to be energy-efficient, adaptable, and relatively straightforward to construct.

The pattern book is a key component of the state’s newly released low and mid-rise housing policy, which targets 112,000 new homes over the next five years in areas with access to transport, jobs, and services. While mid-rise projects still require a development application, the state has told councils to streamline assessments, which it says will cut average approval times in half.

New planning laws passed earlier this month in NSW will eventually allow an even faster pathway by routing mid-rise pattern-book projects through a newly created “targeted assessment” track.

To encourage uptake, the NSW government is offering the designs at a steep discount: $1,500 for small-lot and corner-lot options and $2,500 for large-lot options, or roughly 1% of typical architectural fees. This subsidized pricing will run for six months.

Premier Chris Minns says the pattern book is designed as a practical fix for a system that has struggled to produce enough homes to meet demand. “We are leading the world with the use of pattern books to drive the delivery of high-quality and affordable homes by cutting approval delays and making good design more accessible,” he says, noting that housing approvals are now running 15% faster than under the previous government.

Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully notes the designs build on a century-old tradition of mid-rise development in NSW, from Art Deco blocks to post-war brick walk-ups. “These new patterns will write a new chapter,” he says, calling them “affordable, sustainable and ready to build.”

NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin says mid-rise housing “strikes a balance between compact living and community connection,” adding that the curated designs are intended to blend into existing neighbourhoods while also offering builders a “clearer path to construction”.

Image: Spacecraft Architects / NSW Gov't.

Architecture & Design Team

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