What is being built in Australia, and what you are allowed to build
Every development application lodged in New South Wales since 2019, every building approval in the country, and the heritage and planning rules that decide what can happen on a site. Compiled from government registers, free to use, sources and licences stated on every page.
423,148Development applications
187,896Dwellings approved, 12 months
41,981Heritage-listed items
3,999,184Registered companies
Every NSW council, and how it builds
One page per council: what people applied to build, how long a decision takes, and what the ABS separately recorded as approved — two registers nobody else publishes side by side.
| Council | Applications | Homes proposed | Median decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Coast Council | 17,040 | 13,491 | 69 days |
| Lake Macquarie City Council | 14,201 | 13,651 | 46 days |
| Northern Beaches Council | 14,135 | 10,214 | 59 days |
| Council of the City of Sydney | 13,520 | 22,978 | 52 days |
| Inner West Council | 12,806 | 11,026 | 80 days |
| The Hills Shire Council | 12,721 | 23,007 | 70 days |
| Blacktown City Council | 12,359 | 27,543 | 36 days |
| Sutherland Shire Council | 10,757 | 9,864 | 118 days |
Fastest councils to decide
Median days from lodgement to determination. Neither register publishes this — it is computed here from the applications carrying both dates.
Narromine Shire Council15 days · 446 applicationsNarrandera Shire Council16 days · 322 applicationsBrewarrina Shire Council18 days · 51 applicationsCoolamon Shire Council20 days · 614 applicationsTemora Shire Council20 days · 558 applications
What else is here
Building approvals526 councils, all eight states — the one national layer
What people buildTypes of work, typical cost and homes delivered
Heritage listings41,981 protected items — a legal constraint on what you can change
Rents and yields2,472 areas, every state
Area profilesCensus rent, mortgage and income by area
Company register3,999,184 Australian companies
Everything here is open government data, and we say which. Each dataset is listed on data sources & licences with whether its licence permits commercial use and derivative works. Where we compute something worth reusing we publish it back — see the council development activity dataset, released CC-BY with a machine-readable download.