Can both dwellings share a driveway?

Yes. Both dwellings in a dual occupancy can share a driveway, provided the driveway, parking and vehicle-access arrangement meets the applicable planning requirements.

The Missing Middle Housing Design Guide specifically recognises dual occupancy as multi-occupancy housing and refers to common landscaping where there is a shared driveway.

Under the Residential Zones Technical Specifications, the driveway and parking arrangement must also address requirements including:

• Required car parking: the required number of parking spaces must be provided for the dwellings.
• Parking location: parking must comply with the rules about where spaces can be located on the block.
• Tandem parking: spaces can be in tandem only where they belong to the same dwelling. This is important—a shared driveway does not mean one dwelling's required parking space can be trapped behind the other dwelling's parking space.
• Property boundaries: parking spaces must not encroach across property boundaries.
• Safe driveway design: Specification 27.4 requires verge crossings and internal driveways to be designed for safe use by pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, including consideration of vehicle-speed reduction measures.
• Garage/carport presentation: where garages or carports face a street, their openings are also subject to applicable streetscape controls.

The overall arrangement must therefore provide compliant vehicle access, parking and safe movement, even though the physical driveway itself may be shared.

Reference: Planning (Residential Zones) Technical Specifications 2026 (NI2026-303) - https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/View/ni/2026-303/current/PDF/2026-303.PDF & ACT Missing Middle Housing Design Guide – 3.1B Multi-Occupancy - ACT Missing Middle Housing Design Guide