Do I Need Council Approval?

Not always. NSW has three lanes. Minor work that meets every standard in the Codes SEPP is exempt development and needs no planning or building approval. Many renovations, extensions and even whole new homes qualify for complying development, a fast-track certificate issued by a private certifier or council. Everything else needs a development application assessed by your council. Which lane applies depends on your property and your design, which is what the check above sorts out.

Painting, flooring and cosmetic work, like-for-like kitchen and bathroom renewal that moves no walls, decks up to 25 square metres sitting no more than a metre above ground, and garden sheds up to 20 square metres and 3 metres high, set at least 900 millimetres off the boundary. Every one of those has size and siting standards that must ALL be met, most are unavailable on heritage items, and in conservation areas smaller structures usually must sit in the rear yard, and plumbing and electrical work still need licensed trades regardless.

A combined planning and construction approval in one certificate, issued by a registered private certifier or your council when a project meets all the pre-set standards, with no development application needed. The NSW Planning Portal describes approvals in as little as 20 days, or 10 days through the NSW Housing Pattern Book pathway. It covers a lot more than people expect: alterations, extensions, second storeys, pools, granny flats and whole new homes.

For homeowner-scale development applications, NSW councils took an average of about 72 days for a house DA in 2025-26, with 84 days across all application types, and council averages ranged from 18 days to 174 days. Under the Statement of Expectations Order 2026, which commenced on 1 July 2026, the Minister expects each council to determine applications within an average of whichever is the lesser of that council’s own previous-year average or 90 days, falling to 80 days from mid-2027 and 65 days from mid-2028, so most councils are held to their own lower figure rather than to 90. That spread is exactly why it is worth knowing whether your project can use the fast lane before you commit to a design that cannot.

Often, yes. A secondary dwelling can generally be approved as complying development on a residential lot of at least 450 square metres with at least 12 metres of width at the building line, with the dwelling capped at 60 square metres of living area. Under those thresholds it becomes a council conversation. Lot size is the single number that decides it, so measure from the title, not from memory.

Mostly, yes. Listed heritage items and most work in heritage conservation areas cannot use the exempt and complying development codes for building work, with limited exceptions such as some internal alterations, and smaller rear-yard structures in conservation areas. That does not make the project impossible, it makes it a development application with heritage considerations. Your heritage status is free to check on the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer, and it is the first thing to confirm.

Yes. There is no sign-up and no form. Your answers are processed in your browser and are never sent to our server; we count usage events, including the traffic-light colour but never your answers, in our site analytics. The verdict is an indication scored against the published NSW rules, not a determination, and the official sources are listed with the result.

Confirm the pathway first: look up your zoning, heritage and hazard layers on the Spatial Viewer, check your title for covenants and easements, and have a registered certifier confirm which lane your project fits. Then have the design developed to fit that lane’s standards from day one. Projex Pro is a family-run, licensed Sydney builder with design and construct experience, and designing to fit the fast lane is exactly how our own projects are run.