A straightforward house or granny flat DA in NSW usually takes 2 to 4 months from lodgement to determination, a dual occupancy 3 to 6 months, and a townhouse or small subdivision 6 to 12 months, based on what our planners see across Sydney and regional councils. The statutory “deemed refusal” period is 40 days for most local development (60 days where integrated development or concurrence is involved), but the clock stops whenever council requests information, so the real timeframe depends far more on the quality of the application and the council’s workload than on the legislation. The NSW Government publishes assessment times for every council, and the gap between the fastest and slowest is wide.
Key takeaways
- The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 sets a 40-day deemed refusal period for most local DAs and 60 days for integrated development, but these are appeal triggers, not delivery promises.
- Requests for information stop the statutory clock, so an incomplete or weakly justified application can double its own assessment time.
- Council-level average assessment days are published by NSW Planning and vary considerably between Sydney councils.
- Notification, referrals to agencies such as the NSW Rural Fire Service or Sydney Water, and local planning panel meetings each add fixed blocks of time.
- The fastest DAs are the ones that arrive complete, comply or clearly justify every departure, and match the council’s own checklist.
The statutory clock and what it actually means
Under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and the 2021 Regulation, if a council has not determined a DA within the prescribed period the applicant may treat it as refused and appeal to the Land and Environment Court. For most local development that period is 40 days. For integrated development, designated development and applications that need concurrence from another agency it is 60 days. The NSW Planning local development page explains the pathway.
Three things stop or pause that clock: the period between lodgement and the council formally accepting the application, any request for additional information, and the wait for a concurrence or referral response. So a DA can sit at “day 35” on the council system while four calendar months have passed. When people ask how long a DA takes, the honest answer is the calendar time, not the statutory count.
Realistic timeframes by project type
The following ranges reflect general experience across Sydney, the Central Coast, the Hunter and the Illawarra in 2025-26. They assume a complete application with no unusual constraints. Individual outcomes vary and we do not guarantee any timeframe.
| Project | Typical calendar time | What usually drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Alterations and additions, single new dwelling | 2 to 4 months | Notification period, streetscape and amenity checks, BASIX consistency |
| Secondary dwelling (granny flat) by DA | 2 to 4 months | Site constraints that forced the DA route (flood, bushfire, lot size), stormwater |
| Dual occupancy, attached or detached | 3 to 6 months | Neighbour submissions, parking, private open space, stormwater disposal, tree removal |
| Dual occupancy with Torrens title subdivision | 4 to 8 months | Minimum lot size clause, subdivision engineering, section 7.11 contributions |
| Townhouses (multi dwelling housing), 3 to 10 dwellings | 6 to 12 months | Design review, traffic and swept paths, landscaping, on-site detention, possible panel referral |
| Small lot subdivision in a growth area | 4 to 9 months | Precinct plan compliance, servicing, contributions, agency referrals |
Why councils differ so much
NSW Planning publishes assessment performance data on its planning performance page, and it is worth checking your council before you set a program. Behind the numbers are a handful of structural reasons.
Volume in the growth councils
Blacktown, Liverpool, Camden, Penrith and The Hills carry the largest DA loads in the state because of the North West and South West Growth Areas. Suburbs like Marsden Park, Box Hill, Austral, Leppington, Oran Park and Gregory Hills generate thousands of housing applications. High volume means longer queues at the completeness check and allocation stages, even where the assessment itself is efficient.
Referral-heavy areas
In Hawkesbury, Wollondilly, the Blue Mountains and much of the Central Coast, a large share of residential lots is bushfire prone or flood affected. A DA on bushfire prone land that needs a bushfire safety authority becomes integrated development with referral to the NSW Rural Fire Service and a 60-day clock. Flood-affected sites in Penrith, Hawkesbury and Fairfield go to council’s engineers for a flood review. Each referral adds weeks.
Panel referrals
Some DAs are determined by a local planning panel rather than council staff, typically because of the number of objections, a departure from a development standard beyond a threshold, or a conflict of interest. The NSW Planning page on local planning panels lists the triggers. Panel meetings run on a fixed monthly cycle, so a panel referral adds at least 4 to 8 weeks to a townhouse or larger duplex DA in councils such as Parramatta, Cumberland or Canterbury-Bankstown.
Council process design
Some councils run a pre-lodgement completeness check that returns applications within days if a document is missing. Others accept the application and raise the gaps later as a request for information. Some notify for 14 days, others longer for particular development types under their community participation plan. None of this is visible in the average figures but all of it changes your calendar.
A DA timeline, step by step
- Preparation (4 to 10 weeks). Survey, design, BASIX, stormwater concept, any arborist, bushfire, flood or geotechnical reports, and the Statement of Environmental Effects. This stage is in your control and it decides most of what follows.
- Lodgement and completeness (1 to 3 weeks). The DA is lodged on the NSW Planning Portal. Council checks it against its lodgement requirements and either accepts it or returns it.
- Notification (2 to 4 weeks). Neighbours are notified and can lodge submissions. Council must consider submissions under section 4.15(1)(d).
- Referrals (concurrent, 2 to 8 weeks). Internal referrals to engineering, landscape, heritage or traffic, and external referrals where triggered.
- Assessment (4 to 12 weeks). The planner tests the proposal against the LEP, the DCP and the section 4.15 matters and writes the report. Any request for information lands here.
- Determination. Approved with conditions, refused, or referred to a panel. Conditions can then require further design work before a construction certificate.
What you can do to shorten it
- Get the pathway right first. If the project can be done as complying development, a CDC is measured in weeks, not months. Our DA or CDC pathway advice settles this before design money is spent.
- Lodge complete. Every council publishes a DA checklist. A missing survey, an out-of-date BASIX certificate or a stormwater plan that does not match the site plan is the most common cause of a returned application.
- Comply where you can, justify where you cannot. A departure from a DCP control is not fatal, but an unexplained one always draws a question. The SEE should carry the justification on lodgement day.
- Deal with neighbours early. Where a two-storey duplex in Blacktown or Penrith will shade a southern neighbour, the shadow analysis and any design response should be in the application before notification, not after the objection.
- Answer requests for information quickly and completely. A partial response generates a second request. Our RFI response service exists for this reason.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 40 day rule for DAs in NSW?
If council has not determined a local DA within 40 days (60 days for integrated development or where concurrence is required), the applicant can treat it as a deemed refusal and appeal to the Land and Environment Court. Most applicants do not, because the assessment is usually still progressing and an appeal is costly.
Does a request for information stop the clock?
Yes. The statutory assessment period pauses from the date council issues the request until the information is provided. This is why calendar time and the council’s day count are often very different.
Which councils are fastest for a house DA?
It changes year to year. NSW Planning publishes average assessment days for every council, and the spread in Sydney is wide. In our experience, a complete application with a compliant design moves through most councils within the ranges above regardless of where it sits in the rankings.
Is a CDC always faster than a DA?
Usually, because a certifier only checks compliance with the Codes SEPP standards and there is no notification or merit assessment. It is only available where the site and design meet every standard, which rules out many sloping, flood-affected, bushfire-prone or heritage-affected lots.
URBA prepares complete, council-ready DA packages and the Statement of Environmental Effects that anchors them, and we handle requests for information when they arrive. If you want a realistic program for a house, duplex, granny flat or townhouse DA in Western Sydney or anywhere in NSW, send us the site address and we will provide a fee proposal.