Analysing development data is a really important step to becoming an area expert. If you join me to learn my Property Development Formula, you’ll quickly understand that I’m all about having incredible knowledge of your chosen council and the three suburbs you’ve drilled down to within that council area.
Basically we want to examine historic and current development applications (DAs) to help us form a picture of what’s going on in our target suburbs.
Having first-hand knowledge of these DAs helps you assess your own project’s feasibility when it comes to council approval. Most of these developments will be subject to the same planning scheme and council regulation hoops that you’ll need to jump through, so it’s a case of understanding these before you go ahead with your own development strategy and DA process.
Looking at the previous DAs for some councils is going to be super easy, others will be a major pain in the ass.
So lets run through the various ways you can get this information.
There are some online tools that operate nationwide and are definitely worth investigating.
Planningalerts.org.au is a free service which searches as many planning authority websites as it can find and emails you details of applications near you. You can subscribe to alerts in your area and stay informed of new development.
Landchecker was established with the aim of making property data accessible, transparent and useful. With a subscription, you can use it to see which properties have permits/development applications that are either approved (green), pending (yellow) or rejected (red), all on your map-view, using the traffic-light system of filtering. You can apply additional filters that include dates (lodged, and outcome date) as well as keyword (eg. ‘apartments’), so that you can assess similar development plans and their progress.
Landchecker also has a permit/development application alert function. Opt for daily or weekly permit/DA alerts so that you’re kept in the know without having to check yourself.
Individual council websites
Pretty much every council website has the details of every DA on public record while the DA is still “live”, which means it’s still in the process of being assessed. Once it’s approved or declined, it’s generally taken down.
Full disclosure
There are some councils with an open-book approach to development. Brisbane City is a great example. It does development data really well – I consider it best of breed.
The web portal is called Development.i and it provides access to all past and current application details and basic property information for the Brisbane City Council Local Government area. It came about when council asked its constituents what they didn’t like about developments in their area. The response? Residents couldn’t tell what was going on in their neighbourhood.
Brisbane City Council opted for total transparency, giving open access to DAs across the city. You can search via an address, application number or map and adjust filters to narrow your search results. You can also save searches and register to be automatically notified of new applications in an area.
The bare minimum
At the other end of the extreme you’ve got councils that only display DAs for the statutory period.
It is possible to request the associated documents from the council after it’s taken down, but there’s a good chance you’ll need to pay an FOI (freedom of information) processing fee. In some cases this could be worth your while.
Building expertise
Ideally you want to review every single DA in the area and see what the applicant had to fight for and what arguments they actually won.
Then you can start to understand precedence, how susceptible and how accepting council is to pushing the boundary on certain things.
Analysing DAs in your suburbs will give you insight into which consultants are doing what: was there flooding, was there a fire hazard, did they actually submit a report on those things and can you get a copy of that report because it might actually give you insights into what might happen on your site.
This process of reviewing DAs will help you to reverse engineer other people’s deals.
You can also call the consultant directly and say hey, I’m looking to do the same thing. If they think they’re going to win the work, they might be happy to give you 10 to 15 minutes of their time.
Ask if they can give you some idea of how much their services will cost you at this point in time?
You’ll already know what the site was bought for and what it sold for because you can look it up on National Property Data. You’ll start to understand the true timelines of a project by looking at when the DA was lodged and when the sale occurred, which then gives you a way to estimate what your holding costs are going to be.
Yes, all of this research and analysis takes a lot of effort. That’s why you only want to do it on three suburbs.
Basically we want to examine historic and current development applications (DAs) to help us form a picture of what’s going on in our target suburbs.
Having first-hand knowledge of these DAs helps you assess your own project’s feasibility when it comes to council approval. Most of these developments will be subject to the same planning scheme and council regulation hoops that you’ll need to jump through, so it’s a case of understanding these before you go ahead with your own development strategy and DA process.
Looking at the previous DAs for some councils is going to be super easy, others will be a major pain in the ass.
So lets run through the various ways you can get this information.
There are some online tools that operate nationwide and are definitely worth investigating.
Planningalerts.org.au is a free service which searches as many planning authority websites as it can find and emails you details of applications near you. You can subscribe to alerts in your area and stay informed of new development.
Landchecker was established with the aim of making property data accessible, transparent and useful. With a subscription, you can use it to see which properties have permits/development applications that are either approved (green), pending (yellow) or rejected (red), all on your map-view, using the traffic-light system of filtering. You can apply additional filters that include dates (lodged, and outcome date) as well as keyword (eg. ‘apartments’), so that you can assess similar development plans and their progress.
Landchecker also has a permit/development application alert function. Opt for daily or weekly permit/DA alerts so that you’re kept in the know without having to check yourself.
Individual council websites
Pretty much every council website has the details of every DA on public record while the DA is still “live”, which means it’s still in the process of being assessed. Once it’s approved or declined, it’s generally taken down.
Full disclosure
There are some councils with an open-book approach to development. Brisbane City is a great example. It does development data really well – I consider it best of breed.
The web portal is called Development.i and it provides access to all past and current application details and basic property information for the Brisbane City Council Local Government area. It came about when council asked its constituents what they didn’t like about developments in their area. The response? Residents couldn’t tell what was going on in their neighbourhood.
Brisbane City Council opted for total transparency, giving open access to DAs across the city. You can search via an address, application number or map and adjust filters to narrow your search results. You can also save searches and register to be automatically notified of new applications in an area.
The bare minimum
At the other end of the extreme you’ve got councils that only display DAs for the statutory period.
It is possible to request the associated documents from the council after it’s taken down, but there’s a good chance you’ll need to pay an FOI (freedom of information) processing fee. In some cases this could be worth your while.
Building expertise
Ideally you want to review every single DA in the area and see what the applicant had to fight for and what arguments they actually won.
Then you can start to understand precedence, how susceptible and how accepting council is to pushing the boundary on certain things.Analysing DAs in your suburbs will give you insight into which consultants are doing what: was there flooding, was there a fire hazard, did they actually submit a report on those things and can you get a copy of that report because it might actually give you insights into what might happen on your site.
This process of reviewing DAs will help you to reverse engineer other people’s deals.
You can also call the consultant directly and say hey, I’m looking to do the same thing. If they think they’re going to win the work, they might be happy to give you 10 to 15 minutes of their time.
Ask if they can give you some idea of how much their services will cost you at this point in time?
You’ll already know what the site was bought for and what it sold for because you can look it up on National Property Data. You’ll start to understand the true timelines of a project by looking at when the DA was lodged and when the sale occurred, which then gives you a way to estimate what your holding costs are going to be.
Yes, all of this research and analysis takes a lot of effort. That’s why you only want to do it on three suburbs.
