North Sydney Council — Development Application Data
North Sydney Council processes one of the highest volumes of development applications in metropolitan Sydney, with 1,213 lodged in the past year from a database of 3,239 since 2021. Median assessment time sits at 83 days, and 28.59% of applications invoke Clause 4.6 variations to vary development standards. The majority of applications fall into the 'Other' category at 1,809, followed by alterations and additions at 874, while residential flat buildings account for 252 applications. Projects span all cost bands, from 1,258 under $100,000 through to 255 exceeding $5 million. When applications are refused, streetscape and neighbourhood character incompatibility is cited most frequently at 57 instances, followed closely by public interest concerns under section 4.15(1)(e) at 53 mentions, insufficient information at 48, and height, scale, bulk or massing issues also at 48. Heritage impacts feature in 43 refusals, reflecting the area's significant heritage overlay. A Plan Advice AI assessment for your North Sydney property delivers a detailed feasibility report in seconds.
Determination outcomes
Real approval, refusal and withdrawal rates from finalised DAs in the Plan Advice enriched corpus.
Based on the 96.7% of DAs in our North Sydney 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 North Sydney Council
Grounds cited across 144 refused applications, read from the council's own notices of determination. Most recent determination indexed: August 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. 574 grounds across North Sydney Council 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 North Sydney Council 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.
| 100% | Construction certificate before works start | |
| 97% | Appoint a principal certifier | |
| 88% | Stormwater / on-site detentionCOSTS MONEY | |
| 87% | Waste management plan | |
| 84% | Build in accordance with the approved plans | |
| 81% | Vehicular crossing, footpath and kerb worksCOSTS MONEY | |
| 79% | Dilapidation survey of neighbouring propertyCOSTS MONEY | |
| 76% | Security bond or damage depositCOSTS MONEY | |
| 75% | Restricted construction hours | |
| 73% | Erosion and sediment control | |
| 65% | Asbestos / hazardous materials handling | |
| 64% | BASIX commitments |
Based on 472 approvals with a published notice of determination · 4 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 North Sydney Council. Ranked by DA volume.
Development cost distribution
Estimated development cost ranges reported on North Sydney Council DAs.
North Sydney 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 North Sydney Council handle?
Plan Advice holds 3,290 development applications for North Sydney Council, 1,229 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 North Sydney Council?
The median assessment time is 83 days for FY25-26, after a median 5 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 North Sydney Council approve?
88.8% of the 4,463 determined applications we hold were approved and 7.1% were refused. We can read a determination for 96.7% of this council's DAs; the rest are counted as unknown rather than assumed approved.
Why are DAs refused in North Sydney Council?
Across 144 refused applications, the grounds cited most often are streetscape / neighbourhood character incompatibility (57 refusals), insufficient information submitted by applicant (48 refusals), building height, scale, bulk or massing (48 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 North Sydney Council?
The most frequent application types are alterations & additions (883), residential flat building (258), subdivision (80).
How often is a clause 4.6 variation used in North Sydney Council?
933 applications — 28.36% 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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