Master planned communities in Australia are an increasingly popular form of residential development responding to localised pressure of population increase.

They are characterised  as private sector driven, large scale, integrated housing developments located on greenfield sites, most frequently on the outskirts of major metropolitan areas.

Whilst the conception, planning and provision of such communities lies in the hands of the major stakeholders – developers and state and local government – the provision of the unit of consumption, the dwelling, is the purview of housebuilders and also, at the level of final consumption, the concern of an individual purchaser which is most often a family.

The objective of this paper is to report upon an original survey of residents of three separate communities in the northern suburbs of Melbourne which investigated respondents’ satisfaction in respect of the implementation of design controls within and between their communities.

In addition, the research sought to define common design control measures and explore the reasons for their use and role in effecting the outcome of master planned residential development.