Beach House - Good/Bad Design? Input Appreciated

Hi All,

Long-time lurker on this forum, first-time poster. Appreciate all the great content!

I recently bought a ~600sqm empty block of land in coastal Victoria. I'm planning to build a relatively high-end beach house to be rented out for short/medium-term rentals.

I've sketched a basic plan (attached) and intend to take this to an architect/draftsperson to help design the details. Before I do that, I was hoping to get some input from this forum. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything obvious or if the plans I've sketched look stupid..?

A few relevant details:

- The block slopes up from front to back at an angle of approx. 8° - 10°, so the ground floor will have a smaller floor area than the first floor, and must be positioned towards the front of the first floor

- The front of the house has a view towards the ocean, so people will spend most time at the front of the house, and little time out back. This explains why living areas are large decks are at the front.

- The block faces approx. 50° East of North

- To maximise rental yields, I'm aiming for 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, plus 2 living areas, but I'm not sure if 5 bathrooms is overkill... At least one bathroom (probably upstairs common bathroom) would need to fit a bath.

- I only included a single garage because there is effectively also a covered carport (under the deck), plus driveway/on-street parking. 4 cars can comfortably park on / in front of the property (2 undercover)

Any feedback or opinions would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Attachment 1: Both Floors Zoomed Out


Attachment 2: Ground Floor Zoomed-In



Attachment 3: Top Floor Zoomed-In

it's certainly not a stupid plan and any architect should be delighted to be offered such an interesting commission ..attempting to reproduce your original plans i estimate that upstairs is about 240sqm and downstairs about 195sqm and, without enlarging the overall size (and ignoring all the unknown restraints of the slope) my suggestions hope to make the house more flexible for a wider range and size of groups eg a full house huge group or two smaller groups together or separately and the lift offered as an optional extra that makes the house more attractive to aged and disabled guests so i've included, walk in showers, wider doors and hallways and consider grab rails in all bathrooms including grab rails for excellent towel rails
there's an extra kitchen downstairs, laundries on both levels and direct access to upstairs without having to go through the downstairs accommodation and you could also screen the front downstairs deck for more privacy for separate groups

there's a generous master suite on the view side for a more luxurious feeling and also added an extra bunk/play room for wet weather indoor play and activities for older kids, there are three ensuite bathrooms, two separate bathrooms with baths and two separate powder rooms ..so more "overkill" than your original ...lots of other ideas but you can see for yourself

oklouise, thank you for generously taking the time to create those plans!! Are you an architect yourself??

The plans you have drawn look great, except that they might be encroaching into minimum side setbacks (depending on the heights of the side walls), and also the floor space ratio might now be exceeding the permitted maximum of 50%. I'll take a closer look at what you've prepared!

your original plan was already 435sqm and not sure what needs to be included to keep under the 50% in your area but total area of all decks is about 120sq in my plan...i'm not an architect just an interested observer and last time i did plans for a beach house in NSW the side setbacks were 1500 for a two storey home but the rooms are quite generous so should be easy to reduce overall size to allow 1800 on both sides but sometime the area of the garage and decks can be excluded in teh overall 50% coverage but, thinking about the slope i'm wondering if a three level building could be an option with a lower, middle and upper section with northern views from the highest level but your architect should be able to provide much better connection to the block, especially taking advantage of the ocean views and bush garden area at the rear but adding furniture always helps understand the walking paths across rooms and best location for placement of doors and window but i've added a copy of my plan without the furniture and showing sqm of each space but, please advise your reaction to my new location of the master suite and the downstairs kitchen?

love the designs that oklouise has drawn up!

couple of my thoughts thinking about the property from a prospective holiday rental perspective:

- Having the master bedroom lookout towards the ocean is essential, if you're able to allow for a free standing bath looking out over the views that would be a killer selling point!
- even though the front faces the ocean and views, don't neglect the fact that families and groups will often want to enjoy the privacy of a social gathering in the backyard in the evenings. your front is very generous, but groups (and neighbours) may not like feeling exposed relaxing at the front as much as the back - unless the front yard is designed in a way to factor in this privacy
- could you design the house so it has a courtyard on one side (i think left which is to north) - to create different zones, and internal entertainment/relaxing oasis? not sure what your setbacks from the front, but if you could build closer to the road, you could elongate the house to accommodate for a central courtyard
- when i travel with multiple families, it really helps to have separate zones that adults and kids can enjoy separately at different times throughout the day, whilst being able to come together for meals

love the idea of a bath with a view but if there's not enough space consider a freestanding spa pool on the deck

If you don't, this is what you will be missing, and the missed bookings