Woollahra Municipal Council — Development Application Data
Woollahra Municipal Council processes one of Sydney's highest volumes of development applications—2333 lodged in the past year from a database of 6594 since 2021—yet assessments here take a median 96 days, reflecting the technical scrutiny applied in this heritage-sensitive municipality. More than one in four applications invoke Clause 4.6 variations to development standards, a 27.13% rate that underscores the tension between existing planning controls and contemporary development pressures. Alterations and additions dominate alongside residential flat buildings, with a notable concentration of high-value work: 1308 applications fall in the $1M–$5M band and 443 exceed $5M. Refusals most commonly cite streetscape and neighbourhood character incompatibility (147 refusals), insufficient information (135), public interest concerns under s4.15(1)(e) (125), building scale issues (110), and heritage impacts (107). Understanding these refusal patterns and the council's expectations around built form and documentation quality is essential before lodging. A Plan Advice AI-powered assessment for a property in Woollahra Municipal Council takes seconds to run.
Determination outcomes
Real approval, refusal and withdrawal rates from finalised DAs in the Plan Advice enriched corpus.
Based on the 95.6% of DAs in our Woollahra Municipal 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 Woollahra Municipal Council, and who decides it
Counted from every application Woollahra Municipal 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.
29.6% of applications in Woollahra Municipal Council sought a clause 4.6 variation to a development standard, and 31.5% of those variations were granted (460 of 1,459). 5.8% of DAs lodged were withdrawn before a determination was made. On the CDC side, 17.9% of certificates lodged were rejected rather than accepted, at an average declared cost of $532,150.
Why DAs get refused in Woollahra Municipal Council
Grounds cited across 226 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. 1,456 grounds across Woollahra Municipal 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 Woollahra Municipal 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% | Appoint a principal certifier | |
| 100% | Construction certificate before works start | |
| 99% | Section 68 Local Government Act approvalCOSTS MONEY | |
| 99% | Asbestos / hazardous materials handling | |
| 98% | Vehicular crossing, footpath and kerb worksCOSTS MONEY | |
| 98% | Security bond or damage depositCOSTS MONEY | |
| 98% | Stormwater / on-site detentionCOSTS MONEY | |
| 97% | Erosion and sediment control | |
| 96% | Long service levyCOSTS MONEY | |
| 94% | Survey certificate at set-outCOSTS MONEY | |
| 94% | Heritage controlsCOSTS MONEY | |
| 91% | Section 7.11 developer contributionsCOSTS MONEY |
Based on 1,680 approvals with a published notice of determination · 8 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 Woollahra Municipal Council. Ranked by DA volume.
Development cost distribution
Estimated development cost ranges reported on Woollahra Municipal Council DAs.
Woollahra Municipal 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 Woollahra Municipal Council handle?
Plan Advice holds 6,726 development applications for Woollahra Municipal Council, 2,425 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 Woollahra Municipal Council?
The median assessment time is 96 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.
How long does the council take to determine a DA in Woollahra Municipal Council?
The median is 85 days from lodgement to determination across 4,464 applications determined in the last 5 years, and the slowest fifth take 160 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 Woollahra Municipal Council?
12.7% of determinations were made by council staff under delegated authority. council (delegation not specified) determined 68.3%, local planning panel determined 10.8%. Anything referred to a panel or the elected body is decided in a public meeting, which adds a meeting cycle.
Does Woollahra Municipal Council approve clause 4.6 variations?
29.6% of applications sought a variation to a development standard, and 31.5% of those were granted (460 of 1,459 in the last 5 years).
Can I use a CDC instead of a DA in Woollahra Municipal Council?
24.9% of approvals in this LGA went through as complying development (1,634 certificates in the last 5 years), and 17.9% 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 Woollahra Municipal Council approve?
85% of the 3,387 determined applications we hold were approved and 15% were refused. We can read a determination for 95.6% of this council's DAs; the rest are counted as unknown rather than assumed approved.
Why are DAs refused in Woollahra Municipal Council?
Across 226 refused applications, the grounds cited most often are streetscape / neighbourhood character incompatibility (147 refusals), heritage item or conservation area impact (107 refusals), insufficient information submitted by applicant (135 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 Woollahra Municipal Council?
The most frequent application types are alterations & additions (1,722), residential flat building (482), dual occupancy (159).
How often is a clause 4.6 variation used in Woollahra Municipal Council?
1,791 applications — 26.63% 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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