That Home Loan Hub
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That Home Loan Hub
How Smart Infill Subdivisions Protect Value And Neighbours
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Ever wondered why some backyard builds feel generous and private while others look jammed in and awkward? We dive into the art of infill done right, breaking down how to shape space, sunlight, and privacy so compact sites live large and lift the whole street.
We start by demystifying infill vs greenfield and then flip the usual process on its head: design the space between homes first, then fit the building to it. You’ll hear clear examples of what goes wrong when this is ignored—bathrooms staring into lounges, driveways skimming past living rooms, and new bulk that steals a neighbour’s sun. From there we map the key moves that make density feel calm: orienting for light, placing windows for outlook without overlooking, and turning side yards into useful courtyards instead of leftover strips for bins.
We also get practical about context and value. Covenants in new areas may guide materials, but older suburbs rely on judgment; a cheap relocated house can cost more in lost value if it clashes with scale and character. We share a smarter path: build smaller now, protect positive outdoor space, and plan for a clean future addition so services, structure, and sun still work. Finally, we ground every choice in purpose—whether you plan to sell, rent, or enable intergenerational living—so each dwelling supports real lives over decades, not just a consent.
If you care about liveable density, neighbourly streets, and property value that grows with time, this conversation is your blueprint. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s eyeing a backyard build, and leave a review telling us the one design rule you’d never break.
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If you just listen to the previous episode of me and Micah talking about subdivisions and the infill house, and you were wondering what the heck is an infill, listen up. This is the episode for you. I've got Micah back. Hello, Micah.
SPEAKER_01:Hello.
SPEAKER_00:So infill houses, and we've decided to title it The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah. Okay. Quickly rack my brain and think about some examples.
SPEAKER_00:No, yes. So what is an infill house? Let's start there.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, an infill house or infill subdivision. It's a bit different from the greenfield subdivisions where, so uh typically greenfield are the subdivisions of the ones we know where say a large bit of farmland, they put in roads, they divvy it up into say four or five hundred square meter plots, sometimes a little bit less, and and a bunch of like, yeah, people buy the bits of land and maybe go to a home builder and they can build build this essentially new part of a suburb that comes up together. Okay. Um, so that's greenfield. Those are the subdivisions we quite often know. An infill subdivision is where we're working within the confines of an existing suburb. There are houses all around, and we're looking at a front yard, a backyard, sometimes even just a driveway down the side, and going, Oh, how can we maybe use this bit of land better to build a house?
SPEAKER_00:So Give me the good. What are the good examples of a good infill subdivision?
SPEAKER_01:I would I would like to think that the subdivision we did with my friends was an example of a good subdivision.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's a brilliant example because you didn't encroach on their personal space in terms of their bathroom not looking into your living room or vice versa. Yep. You you were conscious of their space and not blocking in any light or views or whatever.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so this was this is what I I think is really important, and it and it's part of the sort of bigger theme. Like the like if if you're in the greenfield, you've got a large bit of land, you can kind of do what you want and you get away with it. If we're doing infill and it's you know, there are houses all around, maybe there are trees or there's sunlight we need to consider, or we're tucked up against the road, or that kind of thing, the smaller the site, the more important it is to get a good design strategy. Like you can you it can make or break it. And so, like the idea of the good, like what sort of good design strategies are there. And I think the core idea is actually by thinking about the space in between the buildings rather than the building itself. I think this is the key to an important subdivision. Or an important infill, rather. So just as an example, I'm gonna I'm gonna leap to the to the ugly or the bad options. Like, so some of the bad examples that that I that I've seen around like there's a beautiful old house and they've gone and whacked this two and a half, three-story thing in front of it. There's actually nothing wrong with the old house, and there's nothing wrong with the new house in and of itself. The problem is that the old house looks straight at the bathroom of the old of the new house and that it's two and a half meters away. Or maybe the driveway to the new house goes straight past the living room of the old house, and people are just looking straight into each other, or maybe it blocks their son. So the problem isn't the house itself, it's the spaces in between the houses. So it's really important to approach it kind of the other way around. What spaces do we need around the houses? And from there we design a house that works with that.
SPEAKER_00:To be honest, this rule should also be applicable to the greenfield subdivisions as well.
SPEAKER_01:To be honest, yes.
SPEAKER_00:Because I know so many examples where people, you know, they buy this plots of land at the new subdivision, and they're only like 400 square meters, and there's um There's 200 square meters of house put on there or whatever. Yeah, exactly. And they literally like can pass on a cup of coffee from each other's kitchen to you know to each other. Like it's just gets a little bit too close. Yeah. So, you know, I think this is a brilliant rule, should be an absolute foundation for any type of subdivisions.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a bit of a golden rule, really.
SPEAKER_00:Spacing is the key.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And it's and it's about creating positive space. Now, what I mean by positive space is maybe it's easier to understand what leftover space is. Maybe that's the strip of land down the side where the rubbish bins are, or something like that. That's kind of leftover space. But the positive space is the deck or the courtyard or the the the garden that kind of contributes to two houses or something like that, which gives a nice sense of space in between them. So so yeah, it's really about thinking about yeah, this positive space between the dwellings. Then obviously, sort of adding into that, you've got to think about all the other things like orientation, sun. Am I gonna be am I being a good neighbor? Am I shading them? Yeah, or maybe I'm not shading them, I'm only shading their roof for three hours a day, and so it doesn't matter, type thing. So so it's about yeah, uh about getting the design right, so you're yeah, being a good neighbor.
SPEAKER_00:One thing that popped into my head is let's say in the new subdivision like we're sitting in right now, there are rules, there are covenants, what the houses should look like, what type of material they're built with, etc. etc. Over the time, obviously, as subdivisions get older, certain rules get a little bit diluted, watered down. And in all the subdivisions, there might not even be any covenants. So what I often see is as you say, you know, there might be a beautiful house at the back, and then something that has been transported across from a completely different era and just looks out of space, yeah, out of whack.
SPEAKER_01:It doesn't sort of yeah, enhance the area in a positive way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and by doing so, if you're still the owner of the two lots, you might actually shoot yourself in the foot because you're bringing down the value of both houses.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we you've got to protect your main asset and and and the way to do that is actually through thoughtful considered design work.
SPEAKER_00:Because sometimes people see those um removable houses that they can buy quite cheap, you know,$20,000 for a house to be transported. Yeah, wake it on. But sometimes that's not the best solution. Yeah, maybe while you're renting and you know renters don't care. So while you're renting, maybe it works, but if you are reliant- They've got this got this place, but yeah, yeah. But if you're reliant on capital gains and improving the value in the future, just maybe a thought that needs to be thoughts.
SPEAKER_01:Sort of part of like thinking ahead, like going, well, what do I actually want to get out of this? Because I mean what what are we creating? You you're ultimately creating a life for someone, whether that's you to move into or your kids or a friend, or just to sell to somebody else. So, yeah, getting the big picture right and thinking, well, what sort of mass can I build here? I think the other way to think about it is also in in our situation, we we actually built a really small house. We really tried not to max out the possibilities that it was only a hundred square meters, but I could have built more, believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:We've actually planned it so we'd build only 60 squares now, but there is space that is being left over for a future edition if we need it. So but I think it's also about thinking, well, what do I actually need? And we've got another podcast coming up for interior space tips, which sort of helps contextualize what you actually need and how about using space properly. So we'll come to that. But yeah, so that's something important consideration. And then the more obvious things like light and yeah, your relationships with your neighbors, but and yeah, coming back to that positive space that we talked about earlier.
SPEAKER_00:So I love it. I love it. Thank you, Michael. I think this has been very, very useful for those that are thinking about subdivisions because I do have a lot of clients that have houses, especially like outside of Wellington, you know, live in Otakey, like this is my area of interest, right? I know this area is quite well. They still have houses that have quite big plots of land where you can subdivide or you can put through another driveway and put a house at the back or the front. So I do have those sort of clients thinking about those things. But then you do gotta think ahead as you say, what's the purpose? Why are you doing it? Are you doing it to sell off? Are you doing it to rent it out, to increase your income? You know, what are you doing it for?
SPEAKER_01:What's actually quite interesting is like in in some situations, people actually haven't known, clients of mine haven't known what exactly what they want out of it, but what they've gone in for is something that they can rent now that gives them options to move into in the future, as they maybe want to downsize or um and and and it's weird because thinking about the two houses as a unit kind of working together meant opened it up to yeah, intergenerational living and all this flexibility for their longer-term planning, like, oh, okay, well, I've got the smaller, I'm gonna move into the smaller place when I'm 65 and that's all I need. And maybe my son can go in the big one because it's all my daughter, and they've they can have their family there, and we can, you know, all live happily ever after. I don't know. Like so yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:You know, so you've got to think a little bit ahead, you know, five years, ten years, twenty years. Also, Micah, thank you so much. And for those that haven't heard about Micah before, go back and have a look. We've we've done some epic episodes together, and there's a whole story about Micah and his tiny home. Listen up to the next one. We're doing seven tips on how to maximize your interior. Cool space. Thank you. Bye.
