Check the planning zone and overlays for any Victorian address
Zone, overlays, hazards, what’s being built nearby in Melbourne, school zones, yearly charges and what to ask before you buy, for one property. Free, with sources. Print it or save it as a PDF.
What Address Check tells you
Every Victorian property sits in a planning zone and may carry overlays. Together they shape what you can build, renovate or remove, and a listing rarely states them. A suburb figure can’t tell you whether this address is affected.
- Zone
- What the land is for and what can be built, with the clause it comes from.
- Overlays
- Heritage, flood, bushfire, contamination, acquisition and more, with the share of the lot each covers.
- Hazards
- Hazard exposure to flood, bushfire, heat and aircraft noise, and what to check before you offer.
- Being built nearby
- Major residential projects within 500 m in metropolitan Melbourne, with storeys, dwellings and status, from the state’s Urban Development Program.
- History
- Zone changes and five tracked overlay types since July 2017.
- School zones
- The government primary and secondary zones the address falls in.
- Yearly charges
- An estimate of yearly government charges: council rates, the fire services levy and land tax.
- Before you buy
- Questions for your conveyancer and the Section 32 checklist, each linked to its rule.
- Map and sources
- A map of the lot with these layers, and the source and data date behind every figure.
Lot boundary vs. address point
Where Victoria’s statewide parcel dataset holds a boundary for the address, Address Check intersects that exact boundary with every zone and overlay, so a control covering only the back of the block (common for flood and heritage overlays) is picked up with its share of the lot. For a unit, that is the land parcel the whole building sits on. Where no boundary is held, it checks the single address point and says so: a control on only part of the lot could then be missed, which is why a Planning Property Report from VicPlan is still worth getting before you sign.
How to read a result
Each zone and overlay links to the Victoria Planning Provisions clause that creates it, with a plain-English purpose sourced from that clause. “Covers about X% of the lot” tells you whether a control affects the whole block or a sliver along the boundary. The history covers zones and the five overlay types Vicmap Planning tracks (Heritage, Flood, Special Building, Land Subject to Inundation and Bushfire Management). Schedule-level detail (setbacks, heights, minimum lot sizes) needs the council’s own planning scheme, linked from each result. None of this replaces legal advice or a title search.
A worked example: 314 Young Street, Fitzroy
A real, public result shown as a static example, not a live lookup.
Example result
314 Young Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Whole lot checked (parcel boundary)Zone
Neighbourhood Residential Zone, schedule 1 NRZ1
Primarily for housing at a scale and density in keeping with the existing neighbourhood character. Planning scheme clause 32.09
Overlays (2)
Heritage Overlay HO334
Covers the whole lot
Council approval is typically needed to demolish, substantially alter or extend a building covered by a Heritage Overlay. Planning scheme clause 43.01
Development Contributions Plan Overlay, schedule 1 DCPO1
Covers the whole lot
A development contribution may be payable toward local infrastructure when the land is developed. Planning scheme clause 45.06
Frequently asked
Is Address Check the same as a Planning Property Report?
No. A Planning Property Report from VicPlan is the official document for that purpose, and Delora's result links to it. Address Check is a free, instant first look, built from the same public Vicmap Planning, VicPlan history and Department of Education datasets, so you know what to check before you order one.
What's the difference between a zone and an overlay?
A zone (General Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Rural and so on) sets the land's primary purpose and what can be built on it. An overlay sits on top of a zone and adds extra controls for one issue — heritage, flood, bushfire, a development contribution — regardless of the underlying zone. A property can carry one zone and several overlays at once.
Why does it say "checked at the address point" for some addresses?
Address Check uses the land parcel's exact boundary wherever Victoria's statewide parcel dataset has it, so a zone or overlay covering only part of the block is picked up. Where no parcel boundary is held for that address, it checks the address point instead and says so plainly — an overlay covering only part of that lot could be missed in that case, so confirm with a Planning Property Report.
Why isn't the history complete for every overlay?
Vicmap Planning's published scheme-history service only tracks zone changes and five overlay types statewide: Heritage (HO), Flood (FO), Special Building (SBO), Land Subject to Inundation (LSIO) and Bushfire Management (BMO), from 30 July 2017. Other overlays' histories aren't published as open data, so Address Check says so rather than guessing.
Does Address Check show what's being built nearby?
In metropolitan Melbourne, yes: it lists every project of ten or more dwellings that the Victorian Government's Urban Development Program maps within 500 metres, nearest first, with storeys, dwellings, status and distance. Smaller projects aren't in that data, so check the council's planning permit register too. What each status means.
Does Delora store the address I search?
No. Address Check runs entirely in your browser against static files; nothing you type is sent to Delora, stored, or put in a cookie or local storage. See /privacy.