Build a block of townhouses — New South Wales

Scale changes the process qualitatively: mandatory public notification, multiple referrals, panel determination, development contributions and a subdivision that cannot start until the works are done.

developmentMulti-dwelling housing, roughly 5 to 20 dwellings, site already held skeleton compare across jurisdictions

This is a structural skeleton, not a measured process. The steps, the authorities and the sequence are researched from this jurisdiction's published requirements and are broadly right. The durations are a uniform template applied across all jurisdictions, so the differences between them on the comparison page are mostly an artefact of that template rather than evidence about Australia. Do not quote the day counts. Replacing them with sourced figures for even one jurisdiction would make this page genuinely useful.

480 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

16 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

38% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

42 days saved by concurrency
vs. 522 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

applicant	154d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
assessment	145d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
queue	134d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.
scheduling	47d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.

181 of 480 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: Multi-dwelling housing permitted with consent in the applicable zone, on a site the developer already controls.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Prepare design and consultant documentation application Architectural, civil, traffic, waste, landscape, stormwater and acoustic documentation.	—	applicant	—	150 estimate	—
2	Lodge the development application application after Prepare design and consultant documentation 327d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	applicant	—	3 published	Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW)
3	Pay the assessment fee fee after Lodge the development application 326d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	applicant	—	1 estimate	—
4	Lodgement and properly-made check assessment The authority checks the application is complete before assessment begins. after Pay the assessment fee 312d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	queue	—	14 estimate	—
5	Public notification and submissions notification after Lodgement and properly-made check 284d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	statutory	28	28 estimate	—
6	Internal and external referrals referral Traffic, engineering, waste, landscape, heritage and state agency referrals, each responding separately. after Lodgement and properly-made check 267d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	queue	—	45 estimate	—
7	Assessment against the planning rules assessment after Lodgement and properly-made check, Public notification and submissions, Internal and external referrals 187d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	assessment	—	80 estimate	Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW)
8	Information request and amended plans assessment only if triggered The clock commonly stops while the applicant answers questions. Triggered when: The authority requests further information. after Assessment against the planning rules 97d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	applicant	—	90 estimate	—
9	Determination and issue of development consent decision after Assessment against the planning rules 152d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	scheduling	—	35 estimate	Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW)
10	Third party appeal period appeal only if triggered A legislated window in which a submitter may seek review of the decision. Triggered when: Submissions were received and a submitter has standing to seek review. after Determination and issue of development consent 124d slack	—	statutory	28	28 estimate	—
11	Pay development contributions fee after Determination and issue of development consent 138d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	applicant	—	14 estimate	—
12	Obtain the construction certificate certification Certifies that construction documentation complies with the National Construction Code and the planning approval. after Determination and issue of development consent 112d slack	Registered certifier (NSW)	assessment	—	40 estimate	Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW)
13	Mandatory inspections during construction inspection Inspections at prescribed stages. Counted as booking delay only, not as construction time. after Obtain the construction certificate 100d slack	Registered certifier (NSW)	scheduling	—	12 estimate	—
14	Obtain the occupation certificate certification Authorises the building to be occupied. after Mandatory inspections during construction 75d slack	Registered certifier (NSW)	assessment	—	25 estimate	—
15	Obtain the subdivision certificate certification Authorises registration of the plan creating separate titles. Cannot begin until the works are complete and certified. after Obtain the occupation certificate 30d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	queue	—	45 estimate	—
16	Register the plan of subdivision registration The land registry records the plan and issues the new titles. after Obtain the subdivision certificate	NSW Land Registry Services	queue	—	30 estimate	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Machine-flagged questions

These are produced automatically from the dependency graph. They are questions for a practitioner, not findings. Each one needs a person who has run this process to say whether the constraint is real.

The same body asked more than once

nsw-council-consent (assessment) appears at Lodgement and properly-made check, Assessment against the planning rules, Information request and amended plans. Could these be a single sign-off?
nsw-private-certifier (certification) appears at Obtain the construction certificate, Obtain the occupation certificate. Could these be a single sign-off?

Proposed changes

Run internal council referrals concurrently and publish their queue times parallelise ~25d
Traffic, engineering, waste, landscape and heritage teams assess different things and rarely depend on each other's findings, yet are commonly worked through in sequence.
Bring the subdivision certificate check forward to practical completion resequence ~30d
Most of what is checked at subdivision certificate stage is knowable before the last works are finished, but the check begins only afterwards -- at the point of maximum holding cost.
Determine panel matters on a rolling basis rather than a monthly agenda resequence ~21d
Where assessment is complete and no submissions are contested, allow determination without waiting for the next scheduled panel meeting.

Sources

New South Wales published development assessment and building approval guidance, accessed 2026-08-30

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/nsw-townhouses.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.