Do I need council approval for an extension in Hunters Hill?

Yes, and in Hunters Hill it is almost always a Development Application through Hunters Hill Council with a heritage assessment, because most of the suburb sits inside the Hunters Hill Heritage Conservation Area and many houses are individually listed. Foreshore controls apply near the water and tree removal needs its own approval. A rear extension that keeps the street presentation of the house is the one that gets through. We confirm which pathway applies to your property before quoting.

How long does a home extension take to build in Hunters Hill?

Most extensions run 12 to 20 weeks on site. Design and approvals happen before that: a CDC takes about 4 to 8 weeks, and a DA can take up to 6 months, depending on council. We give you a programme with the quote, not after you have signed.

Can I live at home during the extension?

Usually yes. Because the work is concentrated at the rear or side, most Hunters Hill families stay in the house for most of the build, with a shorter disruptive period when we break through and connect the new space to the old. We plan the breakthrough stage with you so you know exactly when it is coming.

Should I extend out or add a second storey in Hunters Hill?

In Hunters Hill, extending out is almost always the better path. The blocks have the land, the conservation area controls favour work that sits behind the original house, and adding a second storey to a sandstone or heritage listed house is very hard to get approved and harder to build well. We build both, so the advice is honest: we look at your block and tell you which one your home actually wants. A house extension and a second storey are different builds with different engineering, and we quote both honestly.

Will the extension have to match my sandstone house?

Not necessarily, and in the Hunters Hill conservation area council often prefers a rear extension that reads as clearly new and lighter than the original, as long as it sits behind the main house, respects its scale and is not visible from the street. Matching sandstone is possible but expensive, and we talk that through honestly at the design stage. What must always match is the standard of the junction between old and new, which is where our detailing does its work.

How will I know what is happening during my extension?

Two ways. You get a weekly update from the builder running your job, whether or not there is good news in it. And you get access to our client portal, where you can log in any time to see your documents, selections, variations and job status. No chasing, no phone tag, no wondering.

Are you licensed and insured?

Yes. Strava Group holds NSW Builder's Licence 487370C and carries public liability insurance and Home Building Compensation Fund cover on all residential work over the statutory threshold. You can verify the licence directly through Verify NSW at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au.

Timber roof and wall framing in a renovation

Home Extensions · Hunters Hill NSW 2110

Home extensions in Hunters Hill, done properly.

Rear and side house extensions for Hunters Hill homes by a licensed extension builder. Most extensions run $70,000 to $300,000 depending on size and how much of the existing house has to change, itemised quote, honest programme, one builder from concept to handover.

Get Your Extension Assessed Call 0450 605 080

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487370C

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Hunters Hill Council areaNSW Builder’s Licence 487370CItemised quotesClear inclusions & exclusions0450 605 080

Extending out, not up

Extending a Hunters Hill home without getting it wrong.

Strava Group builds home extensions in Hunters Hill: rear additions, side extensions and whole-of-back transformations that open the house to the garden and the water. Hunters Hill is the oldest municipality in Australia and most of it is a heritage conservation area, with sandstone houses, Federation homes and interwar residences on large blocks running down to the Lane Cove and Parramatta rivers. An extension here is judged by the street, by council and by the house itself, so it has to be designed and built with more care than almost anywhere else we work. Many Hunters Hill projects are substantial custom builds that sit above our published range, and we tell you that early.

In Hunters Hill we regularly deliver:

Rear extensions and additions
Side extensions on wider blocks
Open plan kitchen, dining and living
Alfresco and indoor-outdoor connections
New master suites and family rooms
Laundries, mudrooms and storage done properly
Structural openings between old and new
Exterior upgrades to tie old and new together

Thinking about going up instead? That is a different build with different engineering, and we do that too: see second storey additions in Hunters Hill.

Hunters Hill houses are worth more than any extension you could add to them. The job is to add the space the family needs at the rear without taking anything away from what is already there.

Waterfall-edge island in grey woodgrain cabinetry with tall pantry and integrated fridge space

Quick Answer

Home extensions in Hunters Hill start around $70,000 for a modest rear addition to a later house and run well past $300,000 for sandstone and heritage listed homes, which are custom projects quoted on their own terms. Ground floor work runs roughly $2,500 to $4,500 per square metre before the heritage design, rock excavation and masonry work that most Hunters Hill projects involve, with around $30,000 in preliminaries (design, engineering and council approvals, plus site set-up) on top. We tell you early if your project sits above the published range.

Local knowledge

What we know about extending in Hunters Hill.

Every suburb builds a little differently. This is what matters when you are extending a Hunters Hill home.

Council

Hunters Hill is its own local government area under the Hunters Hill Local Environmental Plan 2012 and the Hunters Hill Consolidated Development Control Plan, and most of the suburb sits inside the Hunters Hill Heritage Conservation Area with many individually listed items. That removes the Complying Development pathway for almost every extension, so projects go through a Development Application with a heritage assessment, and foreshore controls apply near the water. Rear extensions that sit behind the original house and keep the street presentation are the ones that get approved. We confirm the pathway for your property before quoting. Current planning controls are published by Hunters Hill Council and on the NSW Planning Portal.

Housing stock

Victorian sandstone houses and villas, Federation homes, interwar residences and a smaller stock of mid-century houses, most of them on generous blocks. Many have been extended before, sometimes well and sometimes badly, and the earlier work often has to come off. Sandstone and heritage listed houses are always custom projects, and their scope usually sits above the range published on this page.

Structure

The older Hunters Hill houses are solid sandstone or double brick on timber floors with hardwood framing and slate roofs. Cutting a new opening into a sandstone or double brick rear wall is a serious piece of engineering: propping, lintels and the tie between old masonry and a new frame all have to be detailed properly, and matching the new floor to an old suspended floor is a detail that has to be right. Weatherboard and brick veneer homes from later decades extend more simply.

Yard and block

Blocks in Hunters Hill are typically 700 to 1,200 square metres and often larger toward the water, with sandstone outcrops, mature trees and slopes toward the rivers. The trees and the rock usually decide where the extension can go, and on the foreshore blocks the extension often steps down the site. Side access on the older streets can be narrow between stone walls.

Services and ground

Hunters Hill sits on Hawkesbury sandstone, frequently at or near the surface. New footings generally found on rock, which is predictable once exposed but can mean excavation, and they have to be detailed against original footings that were laid by hand a century or more ago. Old services, stone drains and absorption trenches on the larger blocks are located before we design.

Value

Hunters Hill is one of the most valuable detached housing markets in Sydney, and the conservation area protects that value. Buyers pay for original houses that have been extended properly and sensitively at the rear, and the worst thing you can do here is a cheap addition that fights the original. A considered extension that keeps the house intact and adds the living space the family needs is the safest improvement in the suburb.

Start here

Tell us about your Hunters Hill home.

No sales pitch, no obligation. Here is exactly what happens when you enquire:

One at a time, takes about two minutes, so the first conversation is about your project rather than the basics.

Start Your Enquiry Call 0450 605 080

The Strava standard

How we build differently.

An extension lives or dies at the junction between old and new. We build for longevity, and on every Hunters Hill extension we run:

Every new-to-existing junction properly detailed

This is where most extensions crack, leak and part company with the house. It is almost always a detailing shortcut, not settlement. Ours get a proper structural tie, flashing and movement detail.

The existing structure gets rectified, not covered

Where the extension meets the house, we screw off and re-brace the adjoining structure, tying new and old together so the whole building moves as one and future cracking is designed out, not painted over.

Footings matched to the ground, not the minimum

New footings are engineered for your soil and detailed against the existing ones, because differential movement between old and new slabs is the classic extension failure, and on Hunters Hill sandstone the challenge is usually matching new rock-founded footings to original ones that were laid by hand.

Furring channels for a dead flat finish

Where new ceilings and walls run through to existing rooms, furring channels give one level plane across both, so you cannot see where the house ends and the extension begins.

Waterproofing is a documented hold point

New wet areas are inspected and photographed before a single tile goes on, to AS 3740, and new roof-to-old-roof junctions get the same treatment.

Everything photographed before it is covered

You receive the record at handover, so in ten years you know exactly what is behind your walls and under your floor.

Before starting Strava Group, I spent seven years on the tools as a carpenter and five years running sites. The failures I kept seeing in extensions were always at the join: cracked cornices along the old wall line, roofs that leaked where new met old, floors that stepped as slabs settled differently. None of it was illegal. All of it was avoidable. None of this shows up in a finished-room photo. All of it shows up in year seven.

Honest numbers

What a house extension actually costs in Hunters Hill.

Most builders will not put numbers on a website. We will, because the alternative is wasting your time and ours across three meetings before anyone mentions a figure.

Item	Typical range
Home extension, depending on size and scope	$70k–$300k
Ground floor extension work	$2,500–$4,500 /m²
Preliminaries, on top of build cost	approx. $30,000

Preliminaries are the costs that exist before a single wall moves: design, engineering and council approvals, plus site set-up such as site fencing, temporary services, waste removal, insurances and supervision. They are real, they are unavoidable, and a quote that does not show them separately has either buried them or forgotten them.

In Hunters Hill the heritage process, sandstone structure and foreshore sites push most projects to the upper end of the band, and many sit above it as custom builds. How much of the existing structure has to change is the largest single factor by a distance, followed by the heritage design work, rock excavation and access between stone walls. We give you a realistic figure early rather than a low one that grows.

Every project is quoted properly after a site inspection. These ranges are here so you can decide whether it is worth a conversation.

Good to know

Hunters Hill extension questions.

From our clients

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Nearby

Home extensions near Hunters Hill.

We build extensions across Hunters Hill, the Ryde district and the lower North Shore. Select a suburb for local council information and what extensions there typically cost.

Hunters Hill and surrounds

Home Extensions Gladesville Home Extensions Drummoyne Home Extensions Ryde Home Extensions Chatswood Home Extensions Five Dock

All Sydney extension areas

Looking for a different service in Hunters Hill? We also build second storey additions in Hunters Hill and home renovations in Hunters Hill.

Extend your Hunters Hill home properly.

Ready for more room?

Tell us about your property and what you want to add. We respond within 24 to 48 business hours with honest advice and real numbers, no cost, no obligation.

Get Your Extension Assessed Call 0450 605 080