Planning decides what can be built, where, and how quickly, yet as a national set of numbers it is mostly blank. Of nine things a reader might want to measure about Australia’s planning systems, from how long an approval takes to how much housing zoned land can hold, a national figure exists for one: the mix of houses and other dwellings approved. For the rest, each state and territory publishes something, on its own basis, or nothing at all. This guide sets out what can be measured, where each measure stops, and where APN covers it.
Library counts show what is held, not every instrument in force: council-level coverage is incomplete outside Tasmania.
Nine questions, one national answer
| What you might want to measure | What is published | National figure | Covered in |
|---|---|---|---|
| The rules in force | Each jurisdiction’s planning instruments, written in its own form | No; instruments can be counted but not compared like for like | Who Writes the Zones |
| How long approval takes | Median times for six jurisdictions, on mixed day counts; NSW application-level data; ACT monthly statistics | NIL RETURN | How Long Does a Development Approval Take? |
| How applications are decided | Victoria publishes permits issued and not issued; NSW portal records show withdrawn and rejected applications; elsewhere little or nothing | NIL RETURN | How Long Does a Development Approval Take? |
| Approvals that become starts | Approvals and commencements, counted separately | Share that lapse: NIL RETURN | From Approval to Start |
| What kind of homes are approved | Houses and other residential dwellings approved, by quarter | Published nationally | What Kind of Homes Are Approved |
| How much zoned land can hold | State land-supply monitors; Blueprint returns (7 of 8 greenfield, 3 of 8 infill) | NIL RETURN | How Much Land Is Zoned for Housing? |
| Building standards for new homes | Code editions and each jurisdiction’s adoption dates | A national code, adopted on different dates | The Building Code for New Homes |
| Infrastructure contributions | Each jurisdiction’s charging framework; NSW councils’ balances held | NIL RETURN | The Contributions Rule Set |
| Heritage and hazard constraints | Registers and mapped overlays by state; instruments by subject | NIL RETURN | Heritage and Environment in the Statute Book |
Sources: as described in each linked article, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Commonwealth Treasury’s National Planning Reform Blueprint reporting, state planning departments and courts, the NSW Audit Office, the Australian Building Codes Board and the APN Regulatory Instrument Library.
The pattern is the same across the table. Planning is run by eight jurisdictions, each with its own law, its own terms and its own reporting; the only national rule set is the building code, which each jurisdiction adopts on its own timetable. Where a national compilation has been attempted, it shows the problem rather than solving it.
The rules themselves
The APN Regulatory Instrument Library holds 336 planning instruments in force, 226 of them made below state level, such as council planning schemes and regional plans. Those counts show what the library holds. They are not comparable between jurisdictions: some states write their rules into one state-wide code, others into a scheme for every council, and the library’s council-level coverage is incomplete outside Tasmania. The instruments that set zones are written in three different ways, as Who Writes the Zones sets out. The dates attached to instruments in the library mark when the current version was published, not when a rule changed, so they cannot be used to date reforms.
The building code is the one national rule set, but each jurisdiction decides when a new edition takes effect. The 2025 edition, released on 1 May 2026, split them, and building ministers have agreed there will be no further residential changes to the code until mid-2029, as The Building Code for New Homes records.
The approval process
How long approval takes is the question most often asked of planning, and the hardest to answer nationally. The Commonwealth Treasury’s National Planning Reform Blueprint reporting gives a median approval time for six jurisdictions, but on mixed bases: four in calendar days and two in business days, as the Productivity Commission labels them. Treasury’s progress summary records that work through housing ministers on nationally consistent housing definitions is no longer under way. New South Wales publishes every application through its Planning Portal, and the ACT publishes monthly statistics; Victoria reports how many applications end with and without a permit, and New South Wales records show withdrawals, but there is no national count of applications approved or refused. How Long Does a Development Approval Take? compares what each state reports.
Once approved, a dwelling may or may not be built. The ABS counts approvals and commencements in separate collections, and nothing tracks an individual approval through to a start, so the share of approvals that lapse cannot be measured, as From Approval to Start explains.
What gets approved, and where it could go
The one planning-related measure published nationally on a common basis for decades is the type of dwelling approved: houses against everything else, which the ABS calls other residential. What Kind of Homes Are Approved follows it back to 1970. It measures the outcome of the planning system, not its rules.
How much housing the land already zoned could hold is not published nationally. In the Blueprint’s September 2025 round, 7 of the 8 jurisdictions gave a figure for greenfield land and 3 for urban infill, with no common definitions; state land-supply monitors each use their own. How Much Land Is Zoned for Housing? covers what each state reports.
Costs and constraints on development
Infrastructure contributions, the charges councils and states levy on development for roads, drainage, parks and other works, follow a different framework in each jurisdiction, and no instrument provides for a national figure (The Contributions Rule Set). The clearest single number is from New South Wales, where councils held $5.4 billion in contributions at 30 June 2025, according to the NSW Audit Office (Contributions Held). Whether public infrastructure work keeps pace with new housing is examined in Does Public Infrastructure Follow New Housing?.
Heritage listings, environmental protections and natural-hazard overlays also limit what can be built. The library holds 35 heritage, 65 environment and 28 hazard instruments, as Heritage and Environment in the Statute Book sets out, but no national measure of how much land they constrain exists.
What this does not show
This guide describes what is published, not how well any planning system works. A missing national figure does not mean the states collect nothing: most publish something for their own purposes. Nothing here ranks one jurisdiction against another, because the measures are not built on a common basis. The library counts are of instruments held, which is incomplete below state level.
- Audit Office of New South Wales Local government 2025 [https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/our-work/reports/local-government-2025], accessed 30 September 2026.
- Australian Building Codes Board NCC 2022 state and territory adoption dates [https://www.abcb.gov.au/ncc-2022-state-and-territory-adoption-dates], accessed 30 September 2026.
- Commonwealth Treasury National Planning Reform Blueprint – Fourth progress and metrics reports [https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2026-772102], accessed 30 September 2026.
- NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure NSW Planning Portal Online DA Data API [https://api.apps1.nsw.gov.au/eplanning/data/v0/OnlineDA], accessed 26 September 2026.
Figures are as reported in the linked APN articles and their sources; APN’s own counts are from the APN Regulatory Instrument Library.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
