Waverley Council — Development Application Data
Waverley Council processes one of the highest volumes of development applications in metropolitan Sydney, with 1715 lodged in the past year and 4735 on file since 2021, yet maintains a median assessment time of 87 days. One in five applications invokes Clause 4.6 to vary a development standard, reflecting the pressure to maximise yield in a built-up coastal area where site constraints are common. Alterations and additions account for 1206 applications, while 313 target residential flat buildings—a reminder of the Eastern Suburbs apartment renewal pipeline. When council refuses development, the most frequent grounds are that proposals are contrary to the public interest under s4.15(1)(e), cited in 97 refusals, followed by site unsuitability in 80 cases and streetscape or neighbourhood character concerns in 75. Refusals tied to building height, scale, bulk or massing appear in 59 decisions, underscoring the importance of contextual fit in Bondi, Bronte and surrounding precincts. A Plan Advice AI assessment for your Waverley property runs in seconds.
Determination outcomes
Real approval, refusal and withdrawal rates from finalised DAs in the Plan Advice enriched corpus.
Based on the 100% of DAs in our Waverley Council 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 Waverley Council, and who decides it
Counted from every application Waverley Council 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.
20.8% of applications in Waverley Council sought a clause 4.6 variation to a development standard, and 50.3% of those variations were granted (371 of 737). 6.4% of DAs lodged were withdrawn before a determination was made. On the CDC side, 17.4% of certificates lodged were rejected rather than accepted, at an average declared cost of $505,470.
Why DAs get refused in Waverley Council
Grounds cited across 119 refused applications, read from the council's own notices of determination. Most recent determination indexed: July 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. 903 grounds across Waverley 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 Waverley 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.
| 99% | Construction certificate before works start | |
| 94% | Appoint a principal certifier | |
| 89% | Section 7.12 levyCOSTS MONEY | |
| 89% | Section 7.11 developer contributionsCOSTS MONEY | |
| 89% | Restricted construction hours | |
| 88% | Security bond or damage depositCOSTS MONEY | |
| 86% | Long service levyCOSTS MONEY | |
| 83% | Asbestos / hazardous materials handling | |
| 78% | Erosion and sediment control | |
| 78% | Sydney Water approval (Section 73)COSTS MONEY | |
| 75% | BASIX commitments | |
| 73% | Stormwater / on-site detentionCOSTS MONEY |
Based on 753 approvals with a published notice of determination · 6 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 Waverley Council. Ranked by DA volume.
Development cost distribution
Estimated development cost ranges reported on Waverley Council DAs.
Waverley 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 Waverley Council handle?
Plan Advice holds 4,832 development applications for Waverley Council, 1,762 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 Waverley Council?
The median assessment time is 87 days for FY25-26, after a median 15 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 Waverley Council?
The median is 83 days from lodgement to determination across 3,291 applications determined in the last 5 years, and the slowest fifth take 152 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 Waverley Council?
15.6% of determinations were made by council staff under delegated authority. council (delegation not specified) determined 65.3%, local planning panel determined 14.3%, land and environment court determined 1.9%. Anything referred to a panel or the elected body is decided in a public meeting, which adds a meeting cycle.
Does Waverley Council approve clause 4.6 variations?
20.8% of applications sought a variation to a development standard, and 50.3% of those were granted (371 of 737 in the last 5 years).
Can I use a CDC instead of a DA in Waverley Council?
35.3% of approvals in this LGA went through as complying development (1,937 certificates in the last 5 years), and 17.4% 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 Waverley Council approve?
94.6% of the 2,883 determined applications we hold were approved and 5.4% were refused. We can read a determination for 100% of this council's DAs; the rest are counted as unknown rather than assumed approved.
Why are DAs refused in Waverley Council?
Across 119 refused applications, the grounds cited most often are contrary to the public interest (s4.15(1)(e)) (97 refusals), streetscape / neighbourhood character incompatibility (75 refusals), building height, scale, bulk or massing (59 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 Waverley Council?
The most frequent application types are alterations & additions (1,220), residential flat building (322), dual occupancy (176).
How often is a clause 4.6 variation used in Waverley Council?
982 applications — 20.32% 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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