New South Wales · NSW Planning Portal data
DA decision times by NSW council, last 12 months
How many development and modification applications each of 128 NSW councils determined between 9 September 2025 and 9 September 2026, and the median days from lodgement to decision, read from the NSW Planning Portal, with the median stated cost of development. The portal records that an application was determined but not whether it was approved or refused, so this table ranks councils on volume and speed, and gives no council a rate it cannot be held to.
128 councils, 53,057 determinations
Click a column heading to sort. Highest determined first by default.
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Coast | 2,078 | 83 | $207,950 |
| 2 | Lake Macquarie | 1,957 | 62 | $200,000 |
| 3 | Sydney | 1,823 | 47 | $327,635 |
| 4 | Northern Beaches | 1,652 | 86 | $484,000 |
| 5 | Inner West | 1,506 | 79 | $300,000 |
| 6 | The Hills | 1,426 | 84 | $707,232 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 1,318 | 40 | $246,675 |
| 8 | Shoalhaven | 1,177 | 68 | $289,363 |
| 9 | Blacktown | 1,169 | 54 | $529,352 |
| 10 | Wollondilly | 1,145 | 28 | $424,280 |
| 11 | Wollongong | 1,096 | 56 | $220,000 |
| 12 | Mid-Coast | 1,032 | 37 | $131,225 |
| 13 | Maitland | 1,002 | 33 | $100,000 |
| 14 | Port Macquarie-Hastings | 919 | 61 | $250,000 |
| 15 | Camden | 907 | 40 | $594,071 |
| 16 | Sutherland | 896 | 93 | $344,675 |
| 17 | Cessnock | 869 | 37 | $259,735 |
| 18 | Coffs Harbour | 866 | 25 | $103,106 |
| 19 | Woollahra | 787 | 89 | $657,937 |
| 20 | Shellharbour | 775 | 32 | $462,031 |
| 21 | Cumberland | 751 | 90 | $800,000 |
| 22 | Port Stephens | 737 | 30 | $100,000 |
| 23 | Tweed | 724 | 91 | $165,000 |
| 24 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 723 | 67 | $431,170 |
| 25 | Wagga Wagga | 672 | 31 | $182,600 |
| 26 | Parramatta | 667 | 82 | $770,000 |
| 27 | Dubbo | 664 | 38 | $220,000 |
| 28 | Clarence Valley | 658 | 44 | $100,000 |
| 29 | Wingecarribee | 647 | 70 | $411,000 |
| 30 | Penrith | 634 | 62 | $490,862 |
| 31 | Blue Mountains | 630 | 70 | $126,250 |
| 32 | Campbelltown | 625 | 41 | $538,000 |
| 33 | Waverley | 620 | 67 | $489,889 |
| 34 | Randwick | 617 | 69 | $418,621 |
| 35 | Bayside | 588 | 75 | $352,338 |
| 36 | Hornsby | 586 | 79 | $374,000 |
| 37 | Liverpool | 586 | 123 | $598,035 |
| 38 | Eurobodalla | 572 | 34 | $149,468 |
| 39 | Queanbeyan-Palerang | 572 | 62 | $390,452 |
| 40 | Albury | 558 | 62 | $107,140 |
| 41 | Byron | 549 | 80 | $256,740 |
| 42 | Ku-ring-gai | 530 | 91 | $648,850 |
| 43 | Georges River | 484 | 99 | $616,000 |
| 44 | Tamworth | 465 | 67 | $154,880 |
| 45 | Ballina | 424 | 48 | $112,200 |
| 46 | Hawkesbury | 409 | 55 | $443,120 |
| 47 | Lismore | 408 | 20 | $166,925 |
| 48 | Orange | 406 | 55 | $239,250 |
| 49 | Willoughby | 404 | 80 | $367,753 |
| 50 | Murray River | 397 | 32 | $82,316 |
| 51 | Bathurst | 391 | 41 | $90,000 |
| 52 | Fairfield | 368 | 78 | $331,550 |
| 53 | North Sydney | 346 | 82 | $487,500 |
| 54 | Bega Valley | 343 | 61 | $213,500 |
| 55 | Ryde | 334 | 88 | $602,520 |
| 56 | Yass Valley | 331 | 106 | $247,500 |
| 57 | Kempsey | 320 | 89 | $135,000 |
| 58 | Goulburn Mulwaree | 315 | 70 | $310,680 |
| 59 | Nambucca Valley | 314 | 28 | $100,000 |
| 60 | Snowy Monaro | 312 | 33 | $271,496 |
| 61 | Mid-Western | 304 | 56 | $95,166 |
| 62 | Singleton | 297 | 41 | $97,950 |
| 63 | Canada Bay | 288 | 46 | $400,000 |
| 64 | Griffith | 281 | 37 | $115,775 |
| 65 | Mosman | 269 | 84 | $652,850 |
| 66 | Wentworth | 263 | 50 | $382,100 |
| 67 | Kiama | 232 | 72 | $275,000 |
| 68 | Dungog | 215 | 60 | $79,000 |
| 69 | Armidale | 204 | 54 | $149,195 |
| 70 | Hilltops | 203 | 46 | $66,000 |
| 71 | Richmond Valley | 201 | 36 | $109,500 |
| 72 | Lane Cove | 190 | 50 | $378,200 |
| 73 | Greater Hume | 178 | 36 | $59,431 |
| 74 | Cabonne | 168 | 21 | $235,400 |
| 75 | Federation | 168 | 33 | $56,000 |
| 76 | Upper Hunter | 162 | 35 | $88,000 |
| 77 | Tenterfield | 160 | 44 | $114,465 |
| 78 | Strathfield | 159 | 73 | $1,443,931 |
| 79 | Hunters Hill | 157 | 102 | $397,482 |
| 80 | Lithgow | 157 | 86 | $153,747 |
| 81 | Muswellbrook | 157 | 48 | $110,306 |
| 82 | Snowy Valleys | 148 | 21 | $70,000 |
| 83 | Berrigan | 147 | 35 | $68,200 |
| 84 | Narrabri | 131 | 27 | $89,857 |
| 85 | Broken Hill | 129 | 22 | $45,320 |
| 86 | Blayney | 128 | 40 | $218,300 |
| 87 | Cowra | 128 | 27 | $195,800 |
| 88 | Burwood | 123 | 45 | $350,000 |
| 89 | Leeton | 123 | 34 | $104,742 |
| 90 | Parkes | 122 | 40 | $65,542 |
| 91 | Bellingen | 121 | 91 | $173,981 |
| 92 | Forbes | 120 | 38 | $150,000 |
| 93 | Cootamundra-Gundagai | 116 | 67 | $96,520 |
| 94 | Temora | 115 | 17 | $90,000 |
| 95 | Inverell | 109 | 50 | $120,000 |
| 96 | Gunnedah | 104 | 91 | $96,894 |
| 97 | Edward River | 101 | 29 | $90,000 |
| 98 | Upper Lachlan | 97 | 58 | $421,914 |
| 99 | Oberon | 85 | 54 | $249,545 |
| 100 | Uralla | 84 | 34 | $217,206 |
| 101 | Coolamon | 82 | 38 | $72,500 |
| 102 | Moree Plains | 79 | 35 | $63,465 |
| 103 | Kyogle | 78 | 39 | $211,892 |
| 104 | Glen Innes Severn | 76 | 31 | $131,000 |
| 105 | Narromine | 75 | 7 | $93,840 |
| 106 | Hay | 73 | 22 | $15,750 |
| 107 | Warrumbungle | 73 | 104 | $50,000 |
| 108 | Junee | 62 | 29 | $75,000 |
| 109 | Lockhart | 60 | 26 | $36,242 |
| 110 | Lachlan | 55 | 68 | $55,000 |
| 111 | Bland | 53 | 45 | $85,000 |
| 112 | Murrumbidgee | 53 | 32 | $105,952 |
| 113 | Gwydir | 52 | 26 | $70,000 |
| 114 | Liverpool Plains | 48 | 47 | $107,250 |
| 115 | Weddin | 47 | 24 | $60,000 |
| 116 | Gilgandra | 46 | 31 | $96,950 |
| 117 | Narrandera | 46 | 16 | $69,300 |
| 118 | Bogan | 38 | 43 | $33,000 |
| 119 | Walgett | 37 | 50 | $100,000 |
| 120 | Coonamble | 35 | 46 | $78,784 |
| 121 | Carrathool | 30 | 35 | $275,315 |
| 122 | Cobar | 29 | 57 | $54,870 |
| 123 | Walcha | 26 | 22 | $232,700 |
| 124 | Bourke | 25 | 70 | $924,000 |
| 125 | Balranald | 16 | 17 | $100,000 |
| 126 | Warren | 16 | 17 | $315,340 |
| 127 | Central Darling | 13 | 42 | $446,524 |
| 128 | Brewarrina | 9 | 38 | $437,523 |
NSW Planning Portal Online DA data, fetched 9 September 2026; determinations between 9 September 2025 and 9 September 2026. Median days are for development applications (modifications excluded) where both the lodgement and determination dates are published.
How the table is built
Every row is a query to the NSW Planning Portal Online DA Data API for one council, filtered on the determination date between 9 September 2025 and 9 September 2026. Determined counts the applications the portal lists as Determined, Deferred Commencement, Operational consent issued or Approved. Withdrawn and cancelled applications are excluded, and an application the portal lists as Rejected was rejected at lodgement rather than refused on the merits, so it is excluded too.
There is no approval rate column, on purpose. The portal publishes the status of a determined application, not the outcome, so approved and refused cannot be told apart from this source. Median stated cost is the median of the cost of development each applicant declared, over applications that declared one.
Median days is the median of determination date minus lodgement date across the council's development applications in the window, with modification applications left out because they are decided on a different footing. Statuses seen in this export: Determined, Deferred Commencement, Withdrawn, Under Assessment, Operational consent issued, Cancelled, Rejected, Additional Information Requested, Operational consent requested, Pending Court Appeal, Open, Operational consent declined, Resolved-Completed, Approved, Operational consent initiated.
Each council's own page carries the same figures with its most common development types and its five most recent determinations. None of this is advice about a particular site; for that, the $150 preliminary planning report reads the instrument and the mapping at the parcel.
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