Frequently Asked Questions
How the NSW planning system treats a development site, and how we work with owners
Working with PropertyThrive
How quickly can I get a development partnership proposal?
We provide initial offers within 24-48 hours of receiving your property details. Our AI-powered valuation system allows us to quickly assess development potential and market conditions.
What types of properties do you work with?
We work with residential properties suitable for subdivision, multi-dwelling development, townhouse projects, and commercial redevelopment. Properties with development potential in major Australian cities are our specialty.
Do I need to pay any upfront costs?
No, there are no upfront costs for our valuation service. We only proceed with costs when you accept our offer and we move forward with the transaction or partnership.
What's the difference between a direct purchase and joint venture?
A direct purchase option means we acquire a property outright for immediate settlement. A joint venture means we partner with you to develop the property and share the profits based on agreed terms.
How do you determine the value of a property?
We use advanced algorithms that consider development potential, local market data, zoning laws, and infrastructure plans. Our valuations focus on future development value, not just current market value.
What areas do you operate in?
We operate across all major Australian cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. We're based in Wollongong, NSW, but service properties nationwide.
Planning and approvals in NSW
How do I find out what I'm allowed to build on my land?
Two documents answer most of it. The section 10.7 planning certificate from your council sets out the zoning and the overlays that apply to the lot, and the NSW Planning Portal's spatial viewer shows the controls mapped against your specific address. Between them you'll see the zone, the minimum lot size and whether the land carries flood, bushfire, heritage or contamination mapping. What neither will tell you is what a compliant scheme actually fits on the block, which takes a design rather than a search.
Do I need a planner, or can I deal with council myself?
For a straightforward proposal that clearly complies, plenty of owners lodge successfully on their own, and council duty planners will answer general questions before you lodge. The case for engaging a planner gets stronger the further your proposal sits from the obvious: multiple dwellings, a variation to a development standard, an overlay on the land, or anything where the argument for approval has to be made rather than simply demonstrated. The honest test is whether your application needs someone to persuade an assessment officer or merely to inform them. Persuasion is a specialist job and it is usually cheaper than a refusal.
How long does a development application take in NSW?
Determination times across NSW have averaged around 122 days against a government target of 115, and the slowest councils run past 250 days. Those are determination times only, so the design and documentation work beforehand sits on top, and a realistic run from decision-to-proceed through to an approval in hand on a genuine development project is commonly 12 to 18 months. Every one of those months is holding cost, which is why time belongs in the feasibility rather than in the scheduling notes.
When can I use a CDC instead of a DA?
Only when your proposal meets every codified standard that applies to it, without exception. A complying development certificate is a tick-box assessment by a private certifier with no merit judgement and no neighbour objections, and it can be issued in as little as 10 to 20 days once the documentation is complete. Miss a single control, or sit under certain overlays such as some heritage, flood and bushfire mapping, and the pathway closes and the proposal has to go to council. So the first question on any site is not which pathway is faster, it's whether the design qualifies at all.
What happens if council never decides my application?
After a set assessment period an undetermined application is taken by law to have been refused, which is called a deemed refusal, and it exists so that a right of appeal opens rather than leaving applicants waiting indefinitely. The ordinary period is 40 days, extending to 60 days for designated or integrated development or where concurrence is required, and 90 days for State significant development. An appeal under section 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act must be lodged within six months of the deemed refusal date, and that window is what most applicants lose without realising they held it. The clock counts assessment time rather than calendar time, so a request for further information pauses it.
Will I have to pay developer contributions?
On most projects that create additional dwellings or lots, yes. Contributions are levied under section 7.11 or the flat-rate section 7.12 levy depending on the council, and they pay for the extra demand your development places on local infrastructure. The rate is published in each council's contributions plan, it is not negotiable, and it falls due before the subdivision certificate is issued rather than at lodgement. It is the single most under-checked number in the whole budget and it takes about ten minutes to look up.
What does a free PropertyThrive assessment actually cover?
We check what your land is permitted to carry, pull the constraints that bear on it, model the realistic options against each other and show you the figures with the inputs visible. That includes the honest version: where a site has a genuine problem, we say so rather than letting you find out in month four of an assessment. You'll have it back within 24 hours, there's no cost and no obligation, and the answer is sometimes that you shouldn't develop at all.