Property due diligence

What's being built near a home you're buying

How to find the apartment and townhouse projects planned or under way near a Victorian address, what each Urban Development Program status means, and what the data leaves out.

What the Urban Development Program tracks

The Victorian Government's Urban Development Program (UDP) monitors and reports on major residential redevelopment projects across metropolitan Melbourne, meaning projects of ten or more dwellings. Its data is collected from administrative and commercial data sources and through analysis of aerial imagery. (Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria), verified 28 Oct 2026) Each project has a status. The UDP gives each project a timing classification based on commercial data sources, consultation with local councils, and the stage the project has reached in the planning process. (Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria), verified 28 Oct 2026) For each site the data gives the number of dwellings (apartments, townhouses and houses), the maximum number of storeys and a street address.

What each status means

Only a planning permit says what may be built. The program’s statuses describe how far along a project is, in its own words:

A project listed as Completed is shown with the year the data says it was finished. The UDP says the timings attached to its projects are indicative: a proportion of proposed projects may be abandoned or delayed, and stated development intentions will vary from on-the-ground construction activity over time and by location. (Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria), verified 28 Oct 2026)

Check an address

Search a Victorian address in Address Check and its Being built nearby section lists every project the program maps within 500 metres, nearest first: its size, its status, how far it is from the lot’s boundary, and its status in the previous edition. The UDP's 2022 edition uses the same categories, dated January 2022: Under Construction means under construction at January 2022, and Completed means completed from January 2021 to January 2022. (Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria), verified 28 Oct 2026) A project that has sat at Possible since 2022 reads differently from one that went from Likely to Firm. Outside the councils the program maps, the section says Not covered rather than “nothing found”.

What the data leaves out

• Projects under ten dwellings: a townhouse pair or a small block of units next door won’t appear.
• Anything outside the program’s area. It covers metropolitan Melbourne, so most of regional Victoria isn’t mapped.
• Offices, shops, schools, roads and rail. The program is residential only. Delora also tested the Australian Government’s Infrastructure Investment Program map for this check: near homes, its Victorian points were almost all finished minor road works, so it isn’t used here.
• Planning applications lodged since the edition was compiled. Each edition is a snapshot, so a status can be out of date until the next one.

Checking a site next door

For any project close enough to matter, look it up on the council’s planning permit register (most councils have an online search by address). The permit and its endorsed plans show the height, the setbacks, the number of dwellings and the conditions. If there is no permit, the status is an indication only. Walk the street for planning notices on fences, ask the agent and the neighbours what is planned, and visit at the times you’d be home. A planning property report from VicPlan shows the controls on the land itself, not a neighbour’s application.

Practical checklist

Before you make an offer

• Run the address through Address Check and read the Being built nearby section
• Look up any project within a few hundred metres on the council’s planning permit register
• Note each project’s height and how it faces the home: views, sunlight and overlooking
• Walk the street for planning notices on fences
• Ask the agent what is planned next door, and visit at the times you’d be home

Questions for a professional

• Is there a planning permit, or an application, for the land next door, and what does it allow?
• Does anything in the Section 32 or the planning certificate mention works or applications on neighbouring land?
• If a large project is approved nearby, how would its construction affect access to this property?

Official resources

• DataVic: Urban Development Program, major residential redevelopment sites 2025
• Planning Victoria: Urban Development Program
• VicPlan: planning property reports

Sources and methodology

• Urban Development Program - Major Residential Redevelopments Sites 2025 | DataVic — Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria) (retrieved 28 Oct 2026). Licence: CC BY 4.0
• Urban Development Program - Major Residential Redevelopments Sites 2022 | DataVic — Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria) (retrieved 28 Oct 2026). Licence: CC BY 4.0

Figures on this page are drawn from Delora's local knowledge graph, refreshed from these primary sources and checked for changes on a regular schedule. If a figure here looks out of date, the official source above is always the authority — please let us know.