Buying, selling or developing land

If you’re looking to buy, sell or develop known contaminated land, or suspect it may be contaminated, contact us early.

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The Victorian Government aims to provide 2.24 million new homes by 2051.

Throughout Victoria, significant unused land parcels exist in well-serviced areas. These are often:

  • former industrial sites, next to decommissioned commercial zones
  • historically contaminated lands.

Our role is to enable landowners and developers to remediate this land. This is so it can be used for housing or other community use instead of sitting idle.

We will also provide clarity of our regulatory process to support:

  • landowners
  • future buyers
  • developers.

We are here to make sure development is:

  • timely
  • efficient
  • does not pose unacceptable risks to human health or the environment.

Every land development project and land parcel are different.

If developers or landowners come to us early for regulatory advice, we can set you on a path to save you significant time, resources and money.

If you are looking to buy, sell, or develop known contaminated land, please see what you need to know below.

If you are thinking of buying, selling or developing land, contact us early at olr@epa.vic.gov.au.

Development lifecycle

We can set you on the shorter regulatory path to help you meet your environmental obligations and support your project from start to finish.

Stage one: Information gathering

If you are selling land and suspect contamination, we recommend doing a Preliminary Site Investigation (PSI). This will protect you or any future owners. An environmental consultant or an environmental auditor can carry out this step.

Before you sell your property, you must provide ‘adequate information’, like a PSI. This is because your legal requirements, like Duty to notify, transfer to the new owner.

Consult with us as early as possible. This will help you understand your environmental duties and avoid delays.

Stage 2: Pre-purchase and negotiations

Based on stage one, landowners and developers may look at further environmental investigations. This may have an impact on the type of development and any negotiations. Failure to disclose any information on the contamination status of your land with future buyers may constitute an offence

Stage 3: Decision to purchase or develop

We don’t get involved in land:

  • sales
  • purchases
  • developments.

However, it’s your responsibility to ensure you meet your contaminated land duties.

Early collaboration with us:

  • reduces the risk of regulatory delays
  • allows you to control your own risk
  • could also fast-track your development
  • will save you time, resources, and money.

Stage 4: Working documents

If your site is contaminated and a potential risk or harm exists, it may be possible to deal with it:

  • onsite
  • through your future site development (via consultation and drawings).

This may also require specialised approvals, which we can help you with. We can offer:

  • clear regulatory guidance
  • outline any further requirements to move forward.

Stage 5: Planning phase

When plans for a new project are being made, the work done in Stages 1 to 4 can greatly assist the planning phase. Councils, who approve these projects, are critical to this phase. They look at all the details, from across all regulators, to decide if the project can go ahead.

The work from Stages 1 to 4 gives councils a better idea of the environment and environmental health risks, which helps them make their decision. If council refers the matter to us, we can answer their questions quickly and clearly. This is because we’ll have the information from the earlier stages.

Once the planning permit is approved in Stage 5, everyone involved will know what they need to do in Stages 6 to 8.

Stage 6: Pre-construction stage

During active development, adherence to environmental obligations is monitored. Delays and extra notices often arise if regulatory engagement was not initiated early.

Stage 7: Construction stage

During construction, we make sure all environmental and legal requirements have been met through the earlier stages. This reduces future risks for all parties.

Stage 8: Post-construction stage

Post-development, ongoing management of any environmental risks is essential. We can intervene when there is a risk of harm to human health or the environment. But this shouldn’t happen if you follow the above process.

Selling land in Victoria

If you’re thinking about selling land in Victoria, it’s important to know whether there’s any contamination on your property.

You need to consider whether your land could be contaminated based on its past use or visible signs, like old equipment or buildings. These might indicate possible contamination. Use Potentially contaminated land guide to help determine if your land is potentially contaminated.

You have duties under the Environment Protection Act 2017 to disclose what you know about any contamination with:

  • buyers
  • tenants
  • anyone else who might end up in charge of the land.

This means giving them:

  • details about any known or potential contamination, including if your land is in a Check your groundwater (CYG) area.
  • results from tests or reports
  • information on any risks to people or the environment.

To help you understand your duties and responsibilities:

Buying land in Victoria

Before buying land, investigate possible contamination from past or nearby activities and conduct reasonable due diligence to assess any risks that could affect your plans (i.e. noise or odour).

What to check before buying land

  • Look for signs of contamination, like strange smells, odd soil colours, or evidence of past factories or businesses.
  • Research what the land and nearby areas were used for in the past.
  • See if any environmental investigations or environmental audits were done and if so, learn about contamination or cleanup efforts.
  • Check the Priority Sites Register to find out if the land is listed as a site needing special care.
  • Use Vic Unearthed, an online map, to check for possible land or groundwater contamination and to see what businesses have operated there before.
  • Be aware of any environmental audit overlays or restrictions that could affect your development plans.
  • Talk with Traditional Owners and Aboriginal communities about possible impacts on cultural heritage.

If you buy land that might be contaminated, you have a duty to manage any contamination that is found.

Land owner (including investors)

Not selling or investing?

If you own land that you are not going to sell or wish to purchase land as an investment, you still need to:

  • understand what you are buying and any potential risks present
  • know your duties about potential contaminated land.

We can provide regulatory advice to support your situation.

Thinking of renovating, subdividing or changing use?

You may need to look deeper into possible contamination if you plan to do anything major like:

  • renovations
  • dividing up the land
  • changing how it’s used.

This can sometimes mean extra steps or checks, like checking the Priority Sites Register.

Developers and contaminated land

If you’re looking to develop known or potentially contaminated land, contact us early. Don’t wait too long – the land you want to buy or develop may have some serious environmental and public health risks buried below the surface.

The decisions you make when planning can prevent or reduce the risk of harm to human health and the environment from your site activities. Developers need to provide evidence and assessments showing how they will meet the requirements of:

When planning land use, review:

Consultant or planner and land development

First, look at the development lifecycle.

In addition to the lifecycle, the following will help set you in the right direction:

Civil contractor and construction in land development

Civil contractors in Victoria must follow our regulations during land development projects. This helps minimise environmental harm. This includes understanding and managing risks associated with:

To prevent creating pollution and waste during your project, contractors need to be proactive in:

Read key requirements and information for Civil Contractors in land development.

Environmental investigations

We appoint environmental auditors to conduct independent environmental audits. This includes Preliminary Risk Screen Assessments (PRSAs). Environmental consultants are professionals in science or engineering. They don’t do audits or PRSAs. Instead, they can:

  • perform assessments
  • conduct studies
  • clean-up work on contaminated sites.

Knowing about environmental investigations helps you:

  • spot risks
  • understand what’s needed for a site.

If you think land is potentially contaminated, you’ll need to look at what it’s been used for before. Find out if anything could have caused pollution. If so, certain rules apply.

An onsite detailed site inspection (DSI) is needed if the preliminary site inspection (PSI), which is mostly desktop assessments, indicates contamination. You might find things like hidden tanks, strange fill materials, stained soil or chemicals above normal levels. These need to be looked at more closely.

You need professionals for PSIs and DSIs because they are complicated. They look at risks to people and the environment. The process uses a tiered approach.

  • Tier one – Initial check. It compares samples from the site to health safety levels.
  • Tier 2 – If the first check shows it’s unsafe, it looks at how people or the environment could be exposed to the contamination. If there aren’t clear guidelines, this tier may set new ones to see if there’s a health risk.
  • Tier 3 – If Tier 2 still finds a risk, Tier 3 is used. This last tier:
    • fills in any missing information
    • checks how dangerous the chemicals are
    • looks at how serious the problem is
    • can also include more detailed tests and checks for uncertainty.

Environment, water & energy

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