You can lodge a development application yourself. In New South Wales anyone can submit a DA (Development Application) through the NSW Planning Portal, and for straightforward work that meets the controls, doing it yourself may be a reasonable decision from a cost perspective. It, however, stops being reasonable the moment the project needs a variation, attracts objections, sits on a constrained site, involves a commercial use, or has already been refused once.
Most people asking this question are weighing a consultant fee against a job they suspect they could do with enough reading. That is a fair way to think about it. This post sets out where the line sits: what you are allowed to do, where self-lodged applications come unstuck, and what a planner does that is hard to replicate from the outside. If the answer for your project is that you do not need one, you will find that here too.
Can you lodge a DA yourself in New South Wales?
Yes. No licence is needed to prepare or submit a Development Application, and there is no requirement to engage a consultant. NSW Planning is explicit that you must submit Development Applications online via the NSW Planning Portal, and equally explicit about where the burden sits. You are responsible for providing all the required information and for making sure the application contains enough detail for Council to assess it.
That second point is the whole question in one sentence. Council does not build your case for you; they merely assess it. An assessment officer reads what you lodged against the controls that apply, and decides. If it does not answer the questions those controls raise, the officer asks for more information, and the assessment clock stops while they wait for the response. One practical consequence: if you engage someone to apply on your behalf, Council contacts them rather than you.
Check the approval pathway first
You may not need a DA (Development Application) at all, and this is the first thing to check rather than the last. New South Wales has three approval pathways and only one of them is a Development Application.
Minor, low-impact work can be Exempt Development, which needs no planning approval at all provided it meets every standard in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008. Larger, although still straightforward, work can be Complying Development, a combined planning and construction approval signed off by a Council or Private Certifier. NSW Planning states that fast-tracked complying development approvals can be issued in as little as 20 days, compared with an average determination time of 70 days for a development application, and puts the saving for a homeowner building a house under Complying Development at up to $15,000, or up to $2,600 on a renovation.
The catch is that Complying Development has no tolerance. Miss one standard and the pathway closes and you are back to a full DA (Development Application). Working out which pathway a project genuinely qualifies for is the highest-value hour in the exercise, whoever does it.
When is lodging it yourself genuinely okay?
When the project is simple, compliant and uncontroversial. In practice that means most or all of the following are true:
- The proposal meets the controls as drawn. No variation to a height, setback, floor space ratio or site coverage standard.
- The site has no live constraints. Not heritage listed, not a conservation area, not flood or bushfire-prone, no significant trees, no easements in the way.
- Nobody is likely to object. The work is modest or at the rear, and does not overshadow, overlook or overhang a neighbour’s property.
- The use is not changing. A house stays a house.
- You have time. Two rounds of information requests would not break anything.
- You can read and understand a planning instrument. Your Council’s Local Environmental Plan and Development Control Plan are public, and you are willing and able to work through the clauses that apply.
For straightforward projects such as a pergola, a deck, a carport or a modest addition on an unconstrained block, a planner will often tell you to save your money.
Six situations where DIY costs more than it saves
DIY stops being the cheaper option when the outcome depends on merits rather than compliance. Any one of these is usually enough to change the calculation:
- The proposal needs a variation. Departing from a development standard means writing a formal justification, in New South Wales usually a Clause 4.6 request. A merit-based variation that is not properly argued is a common reason an otherwise reasonable application is refused.
- The application will be notified and objections are likely. Submissions have to be answered on the merits, in writing, against the controls.
- The site is constrained. Heritage, flood, bushfire and biodiversity each bring specialist reports and referral agencies into the process.
- The use is commercial, or it is changing. Change of use brings parking, hours, waste, acoustics and amenity into scope at once.
- There is a deadline with money attached. A lease running, a settlement date, a business that cannot trade until it is approved.
- You have already been refused. The options are a Section 8.2 review, an amended application, or an appeal, and the Land and Environment Court window is generally six months from the determination date.
What does a Town Planner actually do that you cannot?
Most of it is not lodgement related. Almost anyone can upload documents to a portal. The work sits either side of that, and it is this part that decides the outcome.
A Town Planner reads the site against every instrument that applies to it and identifies the constraints before the design is fixed, which is when changes are still cheap. They establish the approval pathway. They write the Statement of Environmental Effects as a merit-based assessment against the matters the Consent Authority must consider, rather than as a filled-in template. They justify variations in writing, brief and coordinate the other consultants so the reports agree with each other, then manage the assessment, answer information requests and negotiate conditions that are workable.
There is also an experience effect that is hard to buy any other way. A Town Planner who has lodged with your Council before knows which issues that Council cares about and how it words its concerns. That is why Development Application services are sold as a package rather than a form-filling exercise, and the Prestige Town Planning process sets out the steps.
The real cost of a Refusal
A refusal costs more than the fee you saved. It is not a one-week setback. You lose the assessment time already spent, you pay again to re-lodge or to run a review, and any holding cost on the site keeps running through all of it. On a commercial tenancy with rent being paid, that arithmetic gets ugly quickly.
So the comparison is not Town Planner fee versus no Town Planner fee. It is the fee versus the expected cost of the outcomes, weighted by how likely each is on your project. For a compliant carport that expected cost is close to nothing. For a change of use on a constrained site it is not. If you are unsure which yours resembles, that is the answer to get first, and it is what planning advice and strategy is for. If a site cannot support what you are trying to build, you should hear it on the first call rather than after you have paid for drawings.
DIY and a Town Planner, side by side
| Feature | Lodging it yourself | Engaging a Town Planner |
| Up-front cost | Council fees and consultant reports only | Council fees, consultant reports and a Town Planning fee |
| Who reads the controls | You | The Town Planner, before the design is fixed |
| The planning case | A template or your own words | Written as a merit-based assessment against the matters for consideration |
| Variations | Difficult to argue without practice | Formally justified in writing |
| Who Council contacts | You | The Town Planner, who manages the correspondence |
| Response to an information request | Your time, on your learning curve | Handled, usually faster |
| If objections arrive | You answer them | Answered on the merits |
| If it is refused | You decide between review, amendment and appeal alone | The options are assessed and run for you |
| Best suited to | Compliant, unconstrained, uncontroversial work | Variations, constraints, commercial use, deadlines, refusals |
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Town Planner for a granny flat or a small addition?
Usually not. If the work meets every standard in the Codes SEPP (State Environmental Planning Policy) 2008 it may qualify as Complying Development, and if it meets the local controls a self-lodged DA (Development Application) is realistic. However, engaging experienced Town Planning consultants becomes worth it when a standard cannot be met.
Does using a Town Planner make approval more likely?
It improves the strength of the application, which is what Council assesses. Nobody can guarantee an outcome, because consent is the Consent Authority’s decision on the merits of what is lodged.
Can a Town Planner take over an application I have already lodged?
Yes. A Town Planner can be engaged at any stage, including after an information request, after submissions are received, or after a refusal. It is, however, much harder to retrospectively correct or update an insufficient application already under assessment.
Is a builder, architect or draftsperson the same thing?
No. They design and build. A Town Planner assesses the proposal against the planning controls and prepares the planning case. Many projects need both, and they work better when briefed together early.
What happens if I lodge an incomplete DA (Development Application)?
Council will ask for the missing information, and the assessment clock stops until you provide it. Incomplete applications are the most common reason a DA takes far longer than the statutory period. Due to assessment workloads, Councils are also more reluctant to accept applications for lodgement if incomplete, in which case, the application will simply be returned prior to formal lodgement.
Should you lodge it yourself, or bring in a Town Planner?
Decide it on the project, not on the principle.
Lodge it yourself when the proposal complies, the site is clean and nobody is likely to object. Bring in a Town Planner when it needs a variation, sits on a constrained site, changes the use, or has a date attached that costs money to miss. In that second group the fee is not buying convenience, it is buying a materially better application.
Prestige Town Planning prepares and manages Development Applications nationally from Suite 4, 101 Victoria Street, East Gosford, and does not bill for work you do not need. If you are genuinely unsure which group your project falls into, describe the site and what you want to do with it. Ask whether you need a Town Planner at all or call (02) 4308 7305.