City of Sydney — Development Application Data
More than one in three development applications in the City of Sydney involve a Clause 4.6 variation to planning standards, at 36.97% — reflecting the complex constraints of adapting development to a dense urban environment with heritage overlays, height limits, and tight site conditions. With 3,654 DAs lodged in the past year from a total of 13,634 on file since 2021, the council processes a high volume of applications across diverse project types, from minor alterations (3,524 DAs) to substantial commercial developments (1,201 DAs). The median assessment time sits at 61 days, though this varies significantly by development category and complexity. Cost profiles span the full spectrum: 6,714 applications under $100k through to 924 projects exceeding $5M, reflecting everything from shopfront fit-outs to major mixed-use towers. A Plan Advice AI-powered assessment for a property in the City of Sydney takes seconds to run.
Determination outcomes
Real approval, refusal and withdrawal rates from finalised DAs in the Plan Advice enriched corpus.
Based on the 99.2% of DAs in our City of Sydney corpus with a confirmed determination. Applications still under assessment, and any whose outcome the council has not published, are excluded rather than estimated.
How long a DA takes in City of Sydney, and who decides it
Counted from every application City of Sydney determined in the last 5 years, as published in the NSW Planning Portal open data. Timelines are lodgement to determination, so they include the time spent waiting on the applicant.
An application determined under delegation is decided by the assessing officer. Anything referred to a panel or the elected body is decided in a public meeting and adds a meeting cycle to the timeline. Where the council recorded only “Council” it did not say which, so that row is left as published.
39.4% of applications in City of Sydney sought a clause 4.6 variation to a development standard, and 12.7% of those variations were granted (490 of 3,861). 5.5% of DAs lodged were withdrawn before a determination was made. On the CDC side, 17.2% of certificates lodged were rejected rather than accepted, at an average declared cost of $1,078,610.
Why DAs get refused in City of Sydney
Grounds cited across 20 refused applications, read from the council's own notices of determination. Most recent determination indexed: November 2023. Most refusals cite several grounds at once, so these overlap.
Behind each ground above sits the verbatim paragraph the assessing officer wrote, the LEP and DCP clauses it was tested against, and the address and DA number so you can pull the notice yourself. 97 grounds across City of Sydney are indexed this way.
See the grounds in fullConditions you should expect
Approval is not the finish line — every consent arrives with conditions. This is what City of Sydney actually imposes, measured from the consent notices it has published.
Conditions marked costs money are the ones to budget for — contributions, bonds, specialist reports and public-domain works.
| 95% | Appoint a principal certifier | |
| 92% | Construction certificate before works start | |
| 56% | Sydney Water approval (Section 73)COSTS MONEY | |
| 47% | Section 68 Local Government Act approvalCOSTS MONEY | |
| 43% | Asbestos / hazardous materials handling | |
| 34% | Restricted hours of operation | |
| 33% | Heritage controlsCOSTS MONEY | |
| 32% | Acoustic / noise limitsCOSTS MONEY | |
| 31% | Section 7.11 developer contributionsCOSTS MONEY | |
| 29% | Food premises fit-out standards | |
| 24% | Survey certificate at set-outCOSTS MONEY | |
| 23% | Dilapidation survey of neighbouring propertyCOSTS MONEY |
Based on 749 approvals with a published notice of determination · 7 of the conditions above carry a cost. A condition on most approvals is effectively standard; it is not a guarantee of what any individual consent will say.
Development type mix
What people are building in City of Sydney. Ranked by DA volume.
Development cost distribution
Estimated development cost ranges reported on City of Sydney DAs.
City of Sydney DAs — common questions
Answered from this council's own determinations. Where a council has not published a figure, the question is left out rather than guessed.
How many development applications does City of Sydney handle?
Plan Advice holds 13,888 development applications for City of Sydney, 3,682 of them lodged in the last 12 months. The figures on this page are counted from that register, not estimated.
How long does a DA take in City of Sydney?
The median assessment time is 61 days for FY25-26, after a median 7 days to get the application accepted for lodgement. That is the council's own reported figure from the NSW Planning Portal league tables, so it covers every DA they determined — not a sample.
How long does the council take to determine a DA in City of Sydney?
The median is 55 days from lodgement to determination across 9,240 applications determined in the last 5 years, and the slowest fifth take 116 days or more. The NSW median is 60 days. Counted from the NSW Planning Portal open data, so it covers every application — not a sample.
Who decides development applications in City of Sydney?
28.2% of determinations were made by council staff under delegated authority. council (delegation not specified) determined 66.3%, local planning panel determined 2.3%. Anything referred to a panel or the elected body is decided in a public meeting, which adds a meeting cycle.
Does City of Sydney approve clause 4.6 variations?
39.4% of applications sought a variation to a development standard, and 12.7% of those were granted (490 of 3,861 in the last 5 years).
Can I use a CDC instead of a DA in City of Sydney?
52.6% of approvals in this LGA went through as complying development (10,871 certificates in the last 5 years), and 17.2% of CDC applications lodged were rejected rather than accepted. A CDC only applies if the proposal meets every development standard in the Codes SEPP.
What share of DAs does City of Sydney approve?
97.3% of the 7,699 determined applications we hold were approved and 2.7% were refused. We can read a determination for 99.2% of this council's DAs; the rest are counted as unknown rather than assumed approved.
Why are DAs refused in City of Sydney?
Across 20 refused applications, the grounds cited most often are heritage item or conservation area impact (8 refusals), contrary to the public interest (s4.15(1)(e)) (12 refusals), insufficient information submitted by applicant (9 refusals). These are read from the council's own notices of determination, and most refusals cite several grounds at once.
What kinds of development are most common in City of Sydney?
The most frequent application types are alterations & additions (3,555), commercial (1,229), residential flat building (518).
How often is a clause 4.6 variation used in City of Sydney?
5,047 applications — 36.34% of the register — sought a clause 4.6 variation to a development standard.
Most recent development applications
Sampled from the NSW Planning Portal open-data feed.
Get a free, instant AI-powered analysis of your property's zoning, planning controls and likely DA outcome — grounded in Plan Advice's 413,770-DA NSW corpus.
Start free assessment →