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Property Developers

Development in NSWA guide published by Dotto

Property developers and the approvals path in NSW

Property Developers is a guide to the approvals path for property development in New South Wales, written and published by Dotto from the NSW Government’s own pages.

Particulars

Covers
Approval pathways and panels, the development application, development contributions, licences and home building cover, and apartment buildings
Where
New South Wales only
Sources
NSW planning department, NSW Government and icare pages, linked on every page
Published by
Dotto

The path, in five stops

Development in NSW starts with a question of pathway: exempt, complying development, or a development application. A DA ends in a consent whose conditions run through everything after it, from the construction certificate to the occupation certificate, and those conditions can include charges for local infrastructure. The Home Building Act then decides who must be licensed to build and who must be insured. Apartment buildings add their own notice, levy and bond before and after completion.

Each stop has a guide below. Each is set out the way the path itself ends: like a development consent, with its particulars first and its parts numbered like conditions.

The five guides

  1. Guide 1Which approval path, and who decidesExempt, complying or a development application, and the council staff and planning panels who decide.
  2. Guide 2The development application, stage by stageLodging, the assessment clock, exhibition, referral, the decision and what follows it.
  3. Guide 3Development contributionsSection 7.11 contributions, section 7.12 levies and the state’s housing and productivity contribution.
  4. Guide 4Licences and home building coverWhen a developer is taken to be the builder, and what the Home Building Act asks of each.
  5. Guide 5Apartment buildings: notice, levy and bondThe regulated-building steps before an occupation certificate, and the two-year strata bond.
A rounded concrete building under construction, its upper floors open to a blue sky, with the jib of a tower crane above it
A multi-storey building under construction, with a tower crane above it. Photo by MariaAge on Pixabay.

Dates on the path

The rules move. These are the dated changes the official pages carried when this guide was checked.

  • 16 January 2026

    The first changes to planning panels under the Planning Systems Reforms Act 2025, in council areas with a local planning panel.

  • 14 May to 24 June 2026

    Proposed changes to complying development were exhibited; the department expects to finalise them later this year.

  • 1 July 2026

    Two Western Sydney special infrastructure contributions moved into the housing and productivity contribution.

  • 1 July 2027

    Registered building practitioners must also be insured for their practitioner work.

  • 1 July 2028

    The strata building bond’s rise from 2% to 3% is deferred until this date, and the levy exemption for existing class 3 and 9c buildings runs until it.

Three short answers

Does every development need the council’s consent?

No. Exempt development needs no consent or approval if it meets the set standards, and a complying development certificate can come from the council or an accredited certifier.

How long does a development application take?

The department’s lodging page, updated in 2023, says most councils decide straightforward, complete applications in 40 days or less; its complying development page, updated in June 2026, gives 70 days as the average for a DA.

Does home building compensation cover protect the developer?

No. The Home Building Act does not require it to, and every current policy lists developers as a standard exclusion.

Where the facts come from

The approvals pages draw on the NSW planning department’s site, including its guide to the DA process. The building pages draw on the NSW Government’s pages for developers and builders, and on icare’s page on home building compensation cover. Each page lists its sources at the foot, with the date they were checked.