Heritage Overlays: What You Can and Cannot Change
14 August 2026
A heritage overlay is not a ban on renovating. It is a set of rules about what is visible from the street — and the rear of your house is usually fair game.
We build from the inner north out to Werribee and down onto the Mornington Peninsula. Pick your area below to see how we work there — the councils, the site conditions and the questions that come up on your street.
The suburb changes what we have to plan around. It does not change who turns up, what the contract says or how the job is run.
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We interviewed four builders and Unik were the only ones who talked us out of things. The fixed price held from contract to handover — not one variation we did not ask for ourselves.
Our block has a four metre fall and two builders walked away from it. Unik engineered it properly, explained every cost up front, and the retaining work is genuinely beautiful.
Weekly photos meant we could follow the whole build from interstate. The handover pack had every certificate and warranty in it. Our second project with them starts in March.
A heritage overlay is not a ban on renovating. It is a set of rules about what is visible from the street — and the rear of your house is usually fair game.
From first sketch to handover, a realistic programme for a Melbourne new build — including the approval months most timelines quietly leave out.
Slope is not the problem. Fighting the slope is. How split levels, suspended slabs and honest early engineering keep a difficult site affordable.
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