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Sydney’s worst councils for development application wait times revealed

People are being forced to wait for months on end for councils to approve development applications. Some councils are taking more than 200 days to sign off on plans — find out who they are.

Named and shamed: Sydney councils impacting housing crisis

Mum and dad renovators and families looking to build a home are being forced to wait for several months for development applications to be approved by slow councils, with the worst offenders blaming a lack of staff for the blowouts.

Fresh analysis of NSW Department of Planning data by Sydney renovation firm Nouvelle shows that for seven LGAs across Sydney in the 2023/2024 financial year, DAs are taking longer than 200 days to be approved.

The figures are a slap in the face as the Minns government faces a target of building 377,000 new homes by mid-2029 to combat Sydney’s housing crisis.

The data shows it’s not just apartment blocks or large-density houses which are being delayed by slow council approvals, but small-scale renovations, single dwellings and medium-density housing.

The worst offenders are Georges River council, whose residents have been forced to wait an average of 289 days for applications in the past financial year for small-scale projects to be approved from the date of lodgement.

The worst four Sydney councils for average DA waits: Georges River, top left, North Sydney, top right, Sutherland, bottom left and Willoughby, bottom right. Pictures: News Corp/Supplied
The worst four Sydney councils for average DA waits: Georges River, top left, North Sydney, top right, Sutherland, bottom left and Willoughby, bottom right. Pictures: News Corp/Supplied

Next is North Sydney Council, taking an average of 266 days for low to mid-density projects, with Sutherland Shire residents waiting 258 days. Willoughby and Hunters Hill residents waited an average of 238 and 216 days respectively.

The massive blowouts continue despite NSW government guidelines insisting straightforward DAs can be decided within 40 days.

Even the best performing councils in Greater Sydney are continuing to take far longer than the 40-day guideline. Wollondilly council, which approved DAs the fastest in the same time period averaged 61 days for approval. Wollondilly council will be expected approve Australia’s largest ever stand-alone application of 9000 homes at Appin lodged last week. Blacktown council which assessed more than 900 DAs in the 2023/24 financial year, did it in an average of 78 days. Georges River by contrast only assessed 146 applications in the same time period despite only receiving 20 per cent of the number of applications Blacktown did.

The languishing state of DAs in NSW is consistent with new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Monday, which found while residential building approvals rose by 10.4 per cent in July this year across the country, house approvals declined in NSW.

Trailing miserably behind Western Australia, where house approvals increased by 57.6 per cent over the three months to July from the same period the previous year, NSW’s approvals declined by 4.7 per cent.

Industry veterans say the long wait times are costing businesses and families at the hip pocket.

Sydney builder Trent Clark, owner of Red Cedar constructions said he’s had families in tears over the length of DAs.

Trent Clark, director of Red Cedar Constructions, NSW.
Trent Clark, director of Red Cedar Constructions, NSW.

Mr Clarke said one family who asked him to renovate their house in Sydney’s Inner West, were unable to do so after the DA took 11 months to be approved, by which time interest rates had risen in addition to the price of building materials, leaving them unable to afford to build the home.

Mr Clark said if the DA had been approved within the 40-day guideline they would have been able to get it done.

“They’re living in a home that is falling apart around them – they have a DA-approved house they can’t build,” he said.

“People are living on a knife’s edge to afford it all.”

“It depends on the council but in reality I find most DAs come back between eight to 12 months and my pre-DA price estimates become 20 per cent undercooked in terms of the end cost.”

Managing Director of Sydney renovation firm Nouvelle Mike Turner has been helping families renovate their homes for more than 40 years.

Mr Turner said DA approval times for even simple renovations were ballooning out, causing many of his customers to become traumatised by the process.

“We have customers becoming aggravated because of the time delays,” he said.

“They get very frustrated after being requested for information and then hear nothing for months before having more requests for information.”

Mr Turner said the delay increases the costs for both customers and his business with initial quotes not reflecting the cost of doing the build months later due to rising inflation.

“We have to cushion the difference.”

Nouvelle managing director Mike Turner said wait times for DA determinations for renovations have been increasing. Picture: Justin Lloyd.
Nouvelle managing director Mike Turner said wait times for DA determinations for renovations have been increasing. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

The worst offending councils argue the DA assessment blowouts are not a result of NIMBYism but instead because they don’t have enough staff to process all the applications.

Georges River mayor Sam Elmir was unable to comment but a council spokesperson said that they were “facing headwinds” in achieving timely determinations due to “the challenge of recruiting and attracting experienced staff”.

The spokesperson said their inability to hire staff was due to a lack of “salary competitiveness compared to the NSW government in a tight labour market.”

The time required to clear old DAs was also mentioned as a problem for the council.

Sutherland Shire council mayor Carmelo Pesce also said a lack of staff was a major reason for DA delays adding objections on multiple applications taken to the Land and Environment Court had slowed the process down.

“We are getting better and putting measures in place,” he said.

“Twelve to 18 months ago we had close to 1000 DAs to be assessed, as of Monday it’s down to 418.”

A Sutherland shire council spokesperson said they were working to streamline the DA process by prioritising the assessment of smaller and less complicated projects.

Councils that continue to drag the chain could see their ability to approve DAs taken away from them and placed in the hands of a planning administrator or panel, with the Minns government pushing to deliver on its housing agenda.

NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully has warned councils poor performance will be punished.

“We all need to improve our performance when it comes to approving more homes. Local government, the Planning Department and interagency referrals all need to speed up,” he said.

“If we don’t see numbers start to improve, a Performance Improvement Order will be issued to underperforming councils, and Ministerial direction will be given to underperforming government agencies.”

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/living-on-a-knifes-edge-the-sydney-councils-making-the-housing-crisis-worse/news-story/045e9272afd2ebc65c657a7648ad3f87