Town planner for Sydney

Planning in Sydney

Across Greater Sydney we prepare Statements of Environmental Effects for houses, alterations and additions, dual occupancies, secondary dwellings and townhouses, and due diligence reports for buyers weighing up a site.

The low and mid-rise housing reforms (stage 2 from 28 February 2025) apply within 800 metres of nominated town centres and stations across the Six Cities Region, opening dual occupancy, terrace, townhouse and manor house options in many R2 areas that previously allowed only single dwellings.

Heritage conservation areas, foreshore building lines, flood planning areas and bushfire mapping on the urban fringe are the constraints that most often change the pathway in Sydney.

What we do for Sydney sites

• Statements of Environmental Effects for new houses, knock-down rebuilds, alterations, dual occupancies, secondary dwellings and townhouses, written to the Standard Instrument LEP of each of Greater Sydney's 33 councils and each council's DCP.
• Development due diligence reports before you buy: zoning, permissibility, yield, constraints and the approval pathway.
• Dual occupancy and duplex planning, including minimum lot size and frontage checks, CDC eligibility under the Low Rise Housing Diversity Code and Torrens subdivision advice.
• Granny flat planning where the site does not fit the Housing Code and a DA is needed.
• Townhouse and multi dwelling housing yield testing, DCP compliance and SEE reports.
• Subdivision, Clause 4.6 requests, DA or CDC advice and responses to council requests.

Suburbs we cover in Sydney

How a DA works in Sydney

Development applications are lodged through the NSW Planning Portal and assessed by the council against the LEP, the DCP and the section 4.15 matters in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Where a proposal meets every standard in the Codes SEPP it may instead be approved as complying development by a private certifier, which is faster but has no room for merit assessment. We check both pathways before recommending one.

A complete application is the single biggest thing an applicant controls. Our Statements of Environmental Effects address the LEP and DCP in the order the assessing officer reads them, with the sources shown, so requests for information are the exception rather than the rule.