Neighbouring Lots, Opposite Answers
The defining feature of a South Austin fire file. These streets were platted piecemeal and lot dimensions vary substantially even within a block, so the 5,750 square foot threshold for two and three unit projects cuts through neighbourhoods rather than around them.
The consequence is that a neighbour's experience is a poor guide to yours, and general advice about the area is close to useless. The full position is on our page covering what the lot can hold now.
Why Can I Not Just Ask What Happened Next Door?
Which Makes One Lookup Unusually Valuable
The appraisal district's parcel record gives the lot dimensions and the zoning, free and in a minute. In most markets that is background. Here it is the number that decides which buyers should be competing for your property and roughly what range to expect.
It is also the number to hand every buyer, because it stops each of them making their own assumption and quoting from it.
What If I Am Just Under the Threshold?
We publish no lot size data or thresholds analysis for individual South Austin streets. The variation is the point, and the appraisal record answers it for your specific parcel at no cost.
And Subchapter F Sits Over Most of It
Much of South Austin falls inside the mapped McMansion boundary, which caps a single dwelling at the greater of a 0.4 floor to area ratio or 2,300 square feet and imposes the tent formed by the side and rear setback planes.
So a replacement house here is meaningfully constrained, while two or three units on a qualifying lot are not. That gap is what an entitlement buyer is paying for, and on a lot that clears the threshold it is worth real money.
South Austin in Context
Where lot sizes are more consistently large and infill demand strongest, see our page about the east side neighbourhoods. Where values are higher and lots larger still, see our page for the west central neighbourhoods.
The Numbers That Cut Through These Streets
The threshold that divides neighbouring lots is 5,750 square feet, required for a two or three unit project in SF-1, SF-2 or SF-3 since applications opened on 5 February 2024. The small lot use adopted 16 May 2024 sets a floor of 1,800 square feet for one unit.
Subchapter F, adopted in 2006, caps a single dwelling at the greater of a 0.4 floor to area ratio or 2,300 square feet and imposes planes rising 15 feet before angling in at 45 degrees, against a 35 foot base height. South Austin stock runs from the 1930s onward.
South Austin Questions
How Do I Find My Exact Lot Size?
The appraisal district record shows it, free. It is the single most valuable free number available to a South Austin owner after a fire.
Two Buyers Gave Me Very Different Figures.
Likely one priced a replacement house and the other the multi-unit entitlement. Ask each what they intend to build and compare like with like.
Will You Buy on a Small South Austin Lot?
Yes. A smaller lot narrows the field of buyers rather than closing it, and it does not stop us buying.