Subdivision Applications are approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission, however during the assessment, request comment from the City of Mandurah.

The City of Mandurah assesses applications based on Town Planning Scheme No 3 and relevant Outline Development Plans, Local Planning Policies and the Residential Design Codes.

Subdivision of Existing Lots (small lot subdivision)

Under the R-Codes, a single house is a dwelling on either:

• A green-title lot
  (A green-title lot or freehold lot, has its own separate Certificate of Title and in comparison to any form of strata, is reasonable unencumbered), or
• A survey-strata lot with no common property (A survey-strata lot is a form of strata that divides a property based on the land only and not by the building(s) on a site. A survey-strata may or may not have common property (ie common driveways), and like other forms of strata may also have by-laws and a strata company).

In order to subdivide a lot through a green-title lot or survey strata, the minimum and average lot size requirements need to be met, as shown in Column 3 of the attached table, or in the case of a battleaxe lot, Column 4. The requirements of Column 4 only relate to single house lots. The choice between a green-title lot subdivision and a survey-strata lot subdivision is largely dependent on the necessary costs associated with creating the lots, such as Water Corporation headworks (sewer and water) charges.

The Western Australian Planning Commission may vary the minimum and average lot size requirements as shown in Column 3 for a subdivision (Refer Clause 3.12 and 3.1.3 of the R-Codes). One example is for corner lots, where the inclusion of the area of the truncation, up to 20 square metres may be added to the minimum site area requirements.

Any application needs to be made to the Western Australian Planning Commission, and in order to proceed with any subdivision, it is recommended that a licensed land surveyor be engaged to make the necessary applications and ultimate creation of titles through the Department of Land Administration.

A lot may be subdivided into more than single house lots through a survey-strata (with common property), built-strata or vacant-lot strata, however this process typically commences following the completion of detailed design for the development.