Georges River Council — Development Application Data
Georges River Council processes a notably high volume of development applications with 1188 lodged in the past year from a total of 3612 since 2021, yet median assessment times stretch to 147 days—well above the state target. The data reveals an unusually low clause 4.6 variation rate of just 6.28%, meaning proposals departing from height, setback or FSR standards face stricter scrutiny here than in many Sydney councils. Development activity is dominated by smaller projects, with 1314 applications valued under $100k, though the category labelled "Other" accounts for 2134 applications, suggesting diverse project types beyond standard residential work. Dual occupancies are particularly active with 452 applications, alongside 464 alterations and additions and 143 residential flat buildings. If you're planning a development in Georges River Council and want clarity on your prospects before committing to plans and fees, a Plan Advice AI-powered assessment for your property takes seconds to run.
Determination outcomes
Real approval, refusal and withdrawal rates from finalised DAs in the Plan Advice enriched corpus.
Based on the 61.6% of DAs in our Georges River Council corpus with a confirmed determination. Applications still under assessment, and any whose outcome the council has not published, are excluded rather than estimated.
Why DAs get refused in Georges River Council
Grounds cited across 268 refused applications, read from the council's own notices of determination. Most recent determination indexed: September 2026. 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. 2,091 grounds across Georges River Council are indexed this way.
See the grounds in fullDevelopment type mix
What people are building in Georges River Council. Ranked by DA volume.
Development cost distribution
Estimated development cost ranges reported on Georges River Council DAs.
Georges River Council 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 Georges River Council handle?
Plan Advice holds 3,686 development applications for Georges River Council, 1,176 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 Georges River Council?
The median assessment time is 147 days for FY25-26, after a median 10 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.
What share of DAs does Georges River Council approve?
88.6% of the 4,317 determined applications we hold were approved and 6.9% were refused. We can read a determination for 61.6% of this council's DAs; the rest are counted as unknown rather than assumed approved.
Why are DAs refused in Georges River Council?
Across 268 refused applications, the grounds cited most often are streetscape / neighbourhood character incompatibility (148 refusals), contrary to the public interest (s4.15(1)(e)) (198 refusals), stormwater, drainage or flooding (129 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 Georges River Council?
The most frequent application types are alterations & additions (474), dual occupancy (455), subdivision (266).
How often is a clause 4.6 variation used in Georges River Council?
231 applications — 6.27% 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.
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