I think the stones and the ground cover are the tell-tales. That said it is very convincing. I've been fooled by renders before!

Maybe ask a financial advisor, but look after your own needs first. What a beautiful view.

The go-to professional for advice on whether you can sub-divide, is a Land surveyor who specialises in title solutions. However, in order to establish what is the possible and most worthwhile for you, you will need to have some start-up development funds. You will need a recent survey of the land so that you know just how many square meters you have. You will need to establish what are Council rules applying to your block of land. Are there mandated set backs from boundaries? are their minimum lot sizes for houses/units? What is the allowable height? Where is the height measured from? You need to read, very carefully, all of the planning documents relating to your property e.g. the Local Environment Plan, Councils policies for your area, the rules pertaining to materials preferred by Council's policies and many, many other matters. Best to spend some money on a Town Planner to give you a report on the constraints on your site and what could be possible. Once you have ascertained what may be possible if you comply with all of the rules, an Architect should be consulted and commissioned to prepare just sketch plans for several options for development. An architect can give you an idea of building costs per sq. m. This usually ranges from $ 1,700 to 3 to 4 and even $5,000 per sq. m. Add to this a contingency of at least 20% plus , amounts for Council D/A fees, professional fees e.g. architect (who can often save money for you ) quantity surveyor, engineer, land surveyor, and maybe for a traffic engineer. You can see why you need a start-up kitty. Once you have a ballpark figure of what the optimum development may cost (do not forget to include the interest payments for borrowed funds ), it is time to seek advice from several local agents as to the likely sale prices. Then, and only then, are you able to judge whether any development will give a return. Residential development is a complicate matter requiring skill and judgement. My advice is carefully investigate all of the above before making up your mind. I suggest that you look at lots of episodes of "Grand Designs" and count up the people who have overreached and overspent, many to their detriment.

annb1997 - Yes, that is part of the reason I'm doing this project. The entire area will be lowered, re-graded and some drains installed (the garden edge is kind of temporarily in place for now, got a great deal on the plants so they had to go in). It's a bigger job than anticipated as it also means the air conditioners (x3) need to be de-commossioned and re-installed at the new levels. John, I like the idea with regard to the tank, but we get allot of bitey critters and I don't really want to give them anymore areas to hide out in.