Buying land - a couple of questions

DH and I have this marvellous four year plan. Stage one is to start looking for some land from next year.

We've built before, but we bought a house and land package, on a tiny surburban block. Next time around, we're looking for a bit more, a few acres.

How do we go about finding out if the area will be carved up for surburban-style subdivision? I know that where I live now, we can access plans up to 2030 for the area from the council but what about after that? Or is it buy our land and hope for the best, that it won't get carved up in time? This next house/land we're hoping to be our "forever" house, so I really don't want to buy and build, only to find out that our entire dream is going to become the surburban jungle we want to leave. Can councils just carve up wherever they want as they deem fit?

TIA

I used to work in finance for a property development company so I have a tiny bit of exposure to it - my understanding is that it is pretty much what you said - you may be able to obtain a town planning scheme for an area for a period of time but these can always be changed down the track. With the urban sprawl that Australia is experiencing it's not inconceivable that areas that are now rural or semi-rural will become urban in 20-30 years time. Part of what my company did was buy up bits of land in "woop woop" areas and turn them into suburban subdivisions, and while alot needs to happen to do this (ie governments need to agree to build roads, schools, other infrastructure etc) it does happen quite a lot.

Sorry, I know my response is a bit vague and probably not telling you much. I would try and speak to a planner in the council and see what they can tell you..

Thank's Bug'sMum, that's sort of what I thought. Thanks for replying and confirming it for me. We have to figure out what council it will be where we're going to try and find land I guess and go from there.