If you are still relying on traditional Council Development Applications (DAs) to get your sheds approved in NSW, your sales pipeline is about to hit a massive roadblock.
The NSW Government’s landmark Planning System Reforms Act 2025 is no longer just a future proposal. Councils across the state are already implementing these changes at an administrative level right now. Come the New Year, the entire approval landscape changes completely.
Your best bet to avoid being impacted by the changes is to act immediately to transition your customers toward Complying Development Certificate (CDC) pathways, or risk wondering why your ordering pipeline has dried up in the new year.
Where is it up to?
See the below planned timeline as provided by NSW Planning. At this stage it looks as though the back end administration changes are underway. Councils may be starting to charge new fees for integrated approvals (such as RFS, railway etc) and notifications fees. The full detail on the new DA and CDC requirements to be released this calendar year.
Whats changing?
Is a Shed DA a dying thing?
Under the overhauled system, local councils are capping their commitment to a grueling 100-day turnaround for standard Development Applications.
In contrast, if you design and submit your projects as a CDC job, you can unlock 10 to 20-day lightning-fast approvals.
For the shed industry, traditional DAs will likely quickly become a thing of the past. If you don’t adapt your sales process now, your competitors will be building while your clients are still waiting months for council paperwork. The new changes are pushing the two pathways much further apart.
A Game-Changing Win: Minor CDC Variations Allowed
Historically, the biggest headache with the CDC pathway was its rigid, zero-flexibility rules. If your design missed a boundary setback by even a few millimetres, you were forced back into the slow council DA system. That rule is gone. Under the new reforms, you can now apply for minor variations to the CDC guidelines through a deemed approval process. This gives the shed industry unprecedented flexibility while keeping the fast-tracked timeline intact. For the first time in years [in NSW], you may have the opportunity to secure approval entirely within your manufacturing lead times.
Greater Certifer Autonomy
Another benefit of the new changes is that Certifiers will have greater flexibility with minor modifications to avoid having to go back to council for a modification applications. Modification application are currently taking a long time to obtain approval from council on and taking up a lot of council resource.
Neighbour notification process removed for complaint buildings.
It looks as though they will be removing the neighbour notification process and fees applied for compliant structures without variations.
Act Now
Start the CDC Conversation Early
To capitalize on this, it is absolutely critical that you talk to your clients about CDC pathways at the earliest possible stage of their inquiry.
PlanDAT is here to help
This is where PlanDAT keeps you ahead of the game. Instead of spending hours guessing site constraints, you can plug in any NSW address and instantly generate a pre-planning intelligence report.
In seconds, PlanDAT highlights critical site risks—like bushfire and biodiversity zones—and confirms exactly what you need to modify to meet the new, flexible CDC criteria.
Don’t let the New Year deadline stall your business.
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Screen your sites
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Secure 20-day approvals and manufacture without delay.
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Look out for the middle column requirements on Page #3 of your PlanDAT report (see below image).
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Encourage your client to design to the middle column for the fastest approvals
Note: Environmental and conservation zoned properties can not do CDC under the current regime. We are yet to find out if they can under the new..
Make sure you engage professionals to handle the preparation and submission of your applications. Companies that organize approvals for SHEDs everyday. Not companies that do renovations and spec homes – SHEDS.
New expectations on councils
When applying for minor CDC variations, Council will have a 10 day approval expectation
or the variation is DEEMED approved. So what we believe will happen is that they will refuse applications until such time as they have adequate information to complete their assessment within 10 days. A well prepared plan set is going to vital to ensure delays area avoided. The days of mum and dads applying themselves may also be over.
See the full detail on the upcoming NSW Planning reform here:
https://www.planning.nsw.gov.