Clause 57: Four-Storey Apartments (VIC)

If your project is a four-storey apartment building in Victoria, the standards you need to design and assess against now sit in Clause 57 of the planning scheme. Introduced in the 2025 ResCode reform, Clause 57 is the rung between the townhouse and low-rise rules in Clause 55 and the taller apartment framework in Clause 58 - and getting the right clause matters before you draw a single plan.

• ✓What Clause 57 is and exactly when it applies
• ✓How it fits between Clause 55 and Clause 58
• ✓The standards a four-storey apartment proposal must address
• ✓Why Clause 57 has no deemed-to-comply shortcut
• ✓What your town planning report needs to cover

The short answer

Clause 57 sets the apartment standards for residential development of four storeys in Victoria. Introduced in the 2025 ResCode reform, it sits above Clause 55 (two or more dwellings up to three storeys) and below Clause 58 for taller apartments. It is assessed on the merits - there is no deemed-to-comply pathway - and covers internal amenity, daylight, energy, accessibility, communal open space and setbacks.

The detail below explains where the threshold sits, what the standards ask of you, and how to assess your proposal against them.

What Clause 57 is

Clause 57 is one of three apartment and dwelling clauses that came out of the 2025 ResCode reform. The reform split the old ResCode into a clearer ladder by scale: Clause 55 for townhouse and low-rise development, Clause 57 for four-storey apartments, and Clause 58 for the apartment standards applying to taller development. The Clause 55 and Clause 57 reforms were gazetted on 6 March 2025 and came into operation on 31 March 2025.

Clause 57 applies to residential development of four storeys. So a four-storey apartment building is assessed under Clause 57 rather than Clause 55 (which stops at three storeys) or the taller-development standards in Clause 58.

Figure 1: How storeys and dwelling count point your proposal to Clause 55, 57 or 58.

Because the threshold is set by storeys, the first question on any apartment project is simply: how many storeys are you proposing? That single answer decides which body of standards governs the assessment.

How Clause 57 fits between Clause 55 and Clause 58

The cleanest way to understand Clause 57 is as the middle of a three-step ladder. Each step matches a scale of residential development to its own set of standards.

Figure 2: Clause 57 compared with the clauses on either side of it.

• ✓Clause 55 - two or more dwellings on a lot, up to and including three storeys
• ✓Clause 57 - residential development of four storeys
• ✓Clause 58 - the apartment standards for taller development
• ✓Right clause first - the storey count, not the dwelling count, sets the apartment threshold

The practical message: confirm the storey count before anything else, because the standards, the design expectations and the assessment pathway all change between the three. We explain the wider framework in what is ResCode in Victoria, and the low-rise step in Clause 55 for townhouses and low-rise.

The standards Clause 57 covers

Clause 57 follows the same overall structure as the revised Clause 55 - objectives paired with standards - but is pitched at the amenity and design issues that matter for apartment living at four storeys. The matters it addresses include the following.

Figure 3: The main standard areas a four-storey apartment proposal addresses under Clause 57.

• ✓Internal amenity - room sizes, layout and storage for liveable apartments
• ✓Daylight and solar access - daylight to habitable rooms and north-facing windows
• ✓Energy - solar energy and efficient building performance
• ✓Accessibility - dwellings designed for a range of users
• ✓Communal and secluded open space - usable shared and private outdoor areas
• ✓Building setbacks and overshadowing - response to neighbours and the street

Each of these is expressed as an objective with a supporting standard. Your proposal has to respond to the objective and demonstrate how the design meets - or appropriately departs from - the standard.

Why there is no deemed-to-comply shortcut

This is the point that catches people moving up from townhouses. The revised Clause 55 includes a deemed-to-comply pathway: meet the specified standards for a qualifying low-rise proposal and the matter is taken to satisfy the relevant objective, streamlining assessment.

Clause 57 does not have that pathway. A four-storey apartment proposal is assessed on its merits against the standards and objectives - the council weighs the design against each objective rather than waving it through on a tick-box basis. In practice that means the quality of your assessment matters more, not less: you have to show how the design meets each objective, with reasons, rather than rely on a shortcut.

This is exactly why a complete, clause-by-clause town planning report carries real weight for four-storey proposals - the council is reading your reasoning against every objective.

What your town planning report must address

A town planning report for a Clause 57 proposal works through the scheme in the same disciplined order a council expects: confirm the zone and any overlays on the site, then assess the proposal against each Clause 57 objective and standard, alongside the relevant state and local policy and particular provisions such as car parking.

Because there is no deemed-to-comply shortcut, the report should explain - not just assert - how the design responds to daylight, internal amenity, setbacks, overshadowing and the rest. Always confirm the controls on your own land first, free, on VicPlan, and check the current clause text on the Victorian planning scheme provisions, because the apartment framework has been moving and your council may apply local variations.

Hiring a town planner can take weeks. instantplanning builds the same council-ready town planning report from current Victorian planning scheme data in minutes - you review every line before you lodge. Start with what a town planning report is, or generate your report. For genuinely complex or contested apartment proposals, an experienced human planner is still the better call.