First look: DARE unveils Kiaora Place apartments overlooking Double Bay Bowling Club

Sydney developer DARE has become the latest developer to capitalise on the NSW Government’s Low and Mid-Rise Housing reforms in the eastern suburbs, lodging plans for a 52-apartment development across a substantial Double Bay site.

DARE, led by father and son Danny and David Avidan, has filed a State Significant Development Application for the amalgamated 3,907 sqm site at 20 Kiaora Road and 53A Carlotta Road, around 500 metres from the Double Bay town centre.

The proposal, designed by Smart Design Studio, will see the existing three-storey apartment building on Kiaora Road and a three-storey house on Carlotta Road demolished and replaced by two separate residential buildings, dubbed Kiaora Place and Carlotta Place, connected through landscaping and pedestrian paths.

The development would deliver 52 apartments, comprising 38 market apartments in the larger Kiaora Place building and 14 affordable apartments in the Carlotta Place building.

It is the latest proposal to emerge from a rapidly changing planning environment across Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs, where developers have moved quickly to take advantage of the additional height and density available under the State Government's LMR reforms.

The second stage of the LMR policy came into effect in February 2025, allowing greater housing density within 800 metres walking distance of nominated town centres and train and light rail stations.

DARE's site sits around 520 metres from the nominated Double Bay Town Centre and therefore falls within the LMR Housing Area. DARE is also proposing 15 per cent of the project's floor space as affordable housing, unlocking a further 30 per cent bonus to the permitted height and floor space controls under the State Government's Infill Affordable Housing provisions.

The unusual site conditions have driven Smart Design Studio's decision to split the project into two buildings.

There is a 25.5-metre level change between Carlotta Road and Kiaora Road, including an 11 to 12-metre cliff running between the two properties. Carlotta Place will consequently present as four storeys from Carlotta Road but seven storeys from the lower side of the site, while Kiaora Place will present as six storeys with an additional lower-ground level.

Kiaora Place will contain the 38 market apartments, heavily weighted toward larger owner-occupier product with seven two-bedroom, 17 three-bedroom and 14 four-bedroom apartments. The affordable building will comprise five studios, five one-bedroom and four two-bedroom apartments.

That creates a distinctly different proposition across the two buildings, with the Kiaora Road component clearly pitched toward the larger luxury apartment market that has become increasingly prominent across Double Bay, Rose Bay and the surrounding eastern suburbs.

Smart Design Studio has taken cues from Double Bay's existing apartment architecture, where Art Deco, Spanish Mission and Georgian Revival buildings sit alongside more contemporary developments. The architects identified face brick, rounded forms, arches and established landscaping as recurring elements of the suburb's built character.

Those references are particularly evident across Kiaora Place.

Its northern elevation will feature 20 large brick arches, each 10.9 metres long, framing the balconies and living areas while helping create what Smart Design Studio describes as a more human scale to the building.

The apartments have predominantly been orientated north toward the Double Bay Bowling Club, with balconies and living spaces positioned to take advantage of northern sunlight while directing residents away from neighbouring properties to the south.

Amenity will include an 18-metre lap pool with wet-edge detailing, along with a covered wellness area incorporating a hydrotherapy pool and yoga platform. Carlotta Place will have its own rear communal garden and rooftop terrace, the latter taking in views toward Sydney Harbour and the CBD.

The proposal provides 77 car spaces across the two buildings, with separate basement access from Kiaora and Carlotta roads.

DARE's application comes as the LMR policy drives one of the most significant development shifts seen across Double Bay and its harbourside suburb counterparts. The eastern suburbs have traditionally been a difficult market in which to assemble sites of sufficient scale for apartment development, with restrictive planning controls, fragmented ownership and high underlying land values limiting new supply.

The new planning settings have changed that equation, with developers jumping in and amalgamating large sites within proximity of town centres and filing plans through the NSW Government's Housing Delivery Authority, with an affordable housing component, to make new developments stack up financially.