Choose your starting point
Understanding your property in three steps.
The ACT has some of the most specific planning rules in the country, and they're changing. Understanding what your block can do, what the process involves, and who you actually need to talk to isn't straightforward. Most homeowners either don't know where to start or get the wrong advice early and lose time because of it.
BlockPlanner removes that friction. We translate the rules into plain decisions, tell you what's genuinely possible on your specific block, and connect you with the builders, developers, and project managers who know the ACT market.
You don't need to become an expert. You need someone who already is.
BlockPlanner removes that friction. We translate the rules into plain decisions, tell you what's genuinely possible on your specific block, and connect you with the builders, developers, and project managers who know the ACT market.
You don't need to become an expert. You need someone who already is.
Understand your property's potential
Get a fast answer on what your block can do. Free, clear, and no obligation.
Connect with the right people
Knowing what's possible is one thing. Finding a builder or developer you can trust in a market this specific is another. We make the right introductions when you're ready to move.
In Canberra, the difference between a viable project and a built one is rarely the design.
Canberra is a small city with a complex planning environment and a political culture where community voice carries real weight. The developers and investors who succeed here understand that early.
BlockPlanner works at the point where planning, community, and politics intersect. We've run advocacy campaigns at ACT and federal level, turned community opposition into community ownership, and helped projects get heard that deserved to be.
If you're assessing a site, building a case, or trying to bring a community with you - this is the work we do.
BlockPlanner works at the point where planning, community, and politics intersect. We've run advocacy campaigns at ACT and federal level, turned community opposition into community ownership, and helped projects get heard that deserved to be.
If you're assessing a site, building a case, or trying to bring a community with you - this is the work we do.
Connect with the right people
Long-standing relationships with Canberra builders, developers, agents, and project managers. We make introductions that move things forward.
Advocate for good projects
We build the public and political case, media strategy, government engagement, community consultation, and endorsement campaigns. For projects that deserve to succeed.
Activate places and communities
New developments succeed when the community becomes part of the story. We design and facilitate the process that makes that happen, from government brief to delivered framework.
Projects we're proud of
Assessments, advocacy, and activation.
Property Assessment
Property Assessment, Narrabundah
Sarah owned an RZ1 investment property and wasn't sure whether to sell or develop. She ran the free tool, then commissioned a paid assessment. The report mapped her existing house footprint, trees, and site constraints - giving her a grounded view of what was possible today and what the Missing Middle reforms are likely to unlock, without committing to a full feasibility study first.
Development Advocacy
Cohousing Canberra, Watson
After seven years of community-led work, the ACT Government gave Cohousing Canberra an exclusive tender opportunity to secure land in Watson for a 30-unit innovative co-housing development.
BlockPlanner stepped in as the central coordination point across all stakeholders. Over six months we secured developer and architect partnerships, established a legally feasible model, drove a membership campaign to demonstrate community demand, and ran media and political engagement across radio, print, Senator Pocock's office, the Chief Minister, and multiple MLAs.
The tender was submitted in June 2025 and is currently under assessment by the ACT Government.
BlockPlanner stepped in as the central coordination point across all stakeholders. Over six months we secured developer and architect partnerships, established a legally feasible model, drove a membership campaign to demonstrate community demand, and ran media and political engagement across radio, print, Senator Pocock's office, the Chief Minister, and multiple MLAs.
The tender was submitted in June 2025 and is currently under assessment by the ACT Government.
Place Activation
City Hill Activation
How do you turn community consultation into real outcomes? City Hill showed us. Working with a government brief and existing community input, we used the TEDx Adventure methodology to move from ideas to delivery. It wasn't about telling the community what they should want. It was about creating frameworks where good ideas could happen within real constraints. A methodology we now bring to every project we touch.
Development Advocacy
Genesis, Coombs
Genesis is a sustainable residential development in Coombs by ACT Securities, combining ecological design with high-quality living. Getting a development like this in front of the right people takes more than marketing. It takes education.
We're working with ACT Securities to design and deliver a community education event that brings buyers, investors, and local residents into the story early, through a genuine conversation about what sustainable living looks like in practice.
We're working with ACT Securities to design and deliver a community education event that brings buyers, investors, and local residents into the story early, through a genuine conversation about what sustainable living looks like in practice.
Testimonials
Hear what our clients have to say.
Seven years of community work, turned into a credible, visible campaign to secure land from government. BlockPlanner built the public and political case - securing endorsements from an ACT senator and several MLAs, with strong media coverage across print and radio. They knew exactly who to engage and how.
— Michael Bones, President, Cohousing Canberra
BlockPlanner brought together the right partnerships - City Renewal Authority, Brand Canberra and Canberra Innovation Network - and filled a room with architects, designers and planners who genuinely cared about the future of City Hill. What unfolded with the TEDx Adventure format felt alive - a shared, hands-on design challenge that didn’t end when the event did. It’s now evolving into a real activation for the city.
— Olivia Grandjean-Thomsen, Licensee, TEDxCanberra
We weren't sure whether to sell or develop. The reports gave us a clear, honest picture of what the block could do - enough to make a confident decision about the next step without jumping straight into a costly feasibility study.
— Sarah Stanton, Canberra
WHO WE ARE
Built with local expertise.
BlockPlanner was founded by people who believe that how places are built shapes how communities feel about them. That conviction runs through everything we do.
Founder & CEO
Mitch Porteous
Mitch founded BlockPlanner out of a long-held belief that Canberra is one of Australia's most underrated cities - and that most of the barriers stopping it from reaching its potential are ones that can be removed. His work spans property consulting, place activation, planning advocacy, and policy reform - driven as much by changing how the system works as by helping individual projects move forward. He co-founded and leads the MicroforestCollective, a registered charity working in community-led green infrastructure across Australia. He is a TEDx speaker, an accredited economic development practitioner, a former Menslink mentor, and a Non-Executive Director of EveryMan Australia.
Get in touch
Strategic Advisor
Will Honey
Will is the CEO of The Property Collective, one of Canberra's most established residential real estate agencies. He has spent more than two decades working across sales, project marketing, and development, from site acquisition through to settlement, giving him a rare end-to-end view of how residential projects actually get built and sold in the ACT.
He understands what developers need, what landowners want, and what it takes to get projects across the line. That depth of market knowledge is what he brings to BlockPlanner.
He understands what developers need, what landowners want, and what it takes to get projects across the line. That depth of market knowledge is what he brings to BlockPlanner.
Get in touch
Get started
Let's talk about what's possible
Whether you're a property owner wanting clear advice, an asset owner looking to activate a precinct, a developer who needs advocacy support, or someone who just wants to learn, there's a place for you here.
Follow us on socials:
