Approvals and documentation
Complying development certificates
The fast pathway, when the site lets you use it. Approval comes from a registered certifier against a fixed set of standards, and no council assessment is involved.
Complying development is approval by certificate rather than by assessment. If a proposal meets every standard in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, a registered certifier can issue the certificate without the application going to council at all.
The trade is discretion. A development application is a merit judgement, and a well-argued variation can be approved. A CDC is a compliance test with no discretion in it — a scheme that misses one standard by 200 mm is not a minor variation, it is a DA. That is the whole calculation: speed and certainty in exchange for designing exactly inside the box.
We use it wherever it's available, because it saves our clients months. We say so early when it isn't.
The Housing Code, in the figures that decide it
Part 3 of the Codes SEPP is the CDC pathway for a detached one or two storey dwelling house and its attached and detached development — garages, decks, sheds, studios, pools, fences. These are the headline standards. A basement, including a basement garage, counts as a storey (cl 3.1(2)).
Maximum gross floor area of all buildings — cl 3.9
| Lot area | Maximum GFA |
|---|---|
| 200 – 250 m² | 78% of lot area |
| > 250 – 300 m² | 75% of lot area |
| > 300 – 350 m² | 235 m² |
| > 350 – 450 m² | 25% of lot area + 150 m² |
| > 450 – 560 m² | 290 m² |
| > 560 – 600 m² | 25% of lot area + 150 m² |
| > 600 – 740 m² | 335 m² |
| > 740 – 900 m² | 25% of lot area + 150 m² |
| > 900 – 920 m² | 380 m² |
| > 920 – 1,000 m² | 25% of lot area + 150 m² |
| > 1,000 m² | 400 m² |
On a battle-axe lot the access laneway is excluded when sizing the lot (cl 3.9(2)).
Primary road setback — cl 3.10
The default is the average setback of the two nearest dwelling houses on the same side of the road. Only where there are no two dwellings within 40 m does the table apply:
| Lot size | Minimum setback from the primary road |
|---|---|
| 200 – 300 m² | 3 m |
| > 300 – 900 m² | 4.5 m |
| > 900 – 1,500 m² | 6.5 m |
| > 1,500 m² | 10 m |
Side and rear setbacks are formula-based and change with lot width and building height (cl 3.10(4) and cl 3.10(10)). Secondary road, parallel road, classified road, public reserve and battle-axe frontages each have their own rule. We don't estimate these — we read the clause against your lot dimensions, because a side setback wrong by 300 mm is a redesign.
Figures are the state baseline under the Codes SEPP. Individual councils can vary this code for their own area through Schedule 3, and the SEPP is amended often — we confirm the in-force version and any local variation against your address before relying on it.
What closes the pathway
Clause 3.2 lists what is not complying development under the Housing Code. The ones that catch real projects:
- A roof terrace on the topmost roof
- Anything attached to a secondary dwelling or a group home
- A building over a registered easement, with a limited drainage exception (cl 3.2(2))
- A basement larger than the cap set by lot width (cl 3.2(1)(e))
- A common wall, or a garage or carport forward of the building line
- Land identified as being at risk of landslide
- Certain external alterations to the front of an existing attached or semi-detached dwelling
Separately, heritage items and heritage conservation areas, and in most cases flood control lots, take a project out of complying development and into a DA. Bushfire prone land does not close the pathway but imposes its own standards (cl 3.4), as flood control lots do where the pathway remains open (cl 3.5).
Eligibility is cumulative. A proposal has to clear all of clause 3.1, avoid everything in clause 3.2, and meet every standard that applies to it. One failed test and it is a development application.
What the Housing Code does not cover
A common and expensive misunderstanding. Part 3 is for a dwelling house. It is not the pathway for:
- Secondary dwellings and granny flats — explicitly excluded (cl 3.1(4)); these have their own pathway. See granny flats and secondary dwellings.
- Dual occupancies, terraces, multi-dwelling housing and residential flat buildings — these sit under the Housing SEPP and the low- and mid-rise reforms. See dual occupancy and the LMR reforms.
- Alterations that don't add floor area — the Housing Alterations Code, Part 2. See alterations and additions.
- Commercial, industrial and rural development — other code parts. See commercial and industrial.
What a CDC application needs
The drawing set is one line on a longer list. A complete application usually runs to:
- Design drawings — site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, and the standard notation the certifier checks against
- A land survey by a registered surveyor
- Structural engineering, and stormwater and drainage design
- BASIX certificate and NatHERS assessment
- Geotechnical or soil classification
- A bushfire assessment on bushfire prone land
- The registered certifier's own fee, and the long service levy where the works exceed $25,000
We produce the drawings and coordinate the rest, so the certifier receives one complete package rather than a trickle. Our fees start at $5,800 + GST for a new dwelling CDC and $4,300 + GST for a secondary dwelling; the cost estimator shows where that sits in the whole project.
This page describes the Codes SEPP as a general reference, not as advice on a particular site. Every figure needs confirming against the in-force version and your council's Schedule 3 variations before anyone relies on it.
Is your site a CDC site?
Send us the address and we'll test it against the code before you spend anything on drawings.