Plan Advice

NSW Development Applications · planadvice.com.au

See your DA the way council will — before you lodge.

Plan Advice turns complex NSW planning rules into a clear, plain-English roadmap for your development or new business — your likelihood of approval, every issue council is likely to raise, and exactly how to address it. In minutes. Free.

Grounded in real council decisions Live NSW Government planning data Councils across NSW

Start free. See what your property allows before you spend a dollar.

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Free Property Analysis

$0no signup required · 90 seconds

Enter any NSW address and get an instant read on your project — grounded in live NSW Government planning data and real council decisions.

  • Instant zoning & permitted-use check
  • Heritage & environmental constraint screening
  • Three-tier CDC verdict (Likely / Unlikely / Not Possible)
  • Approval-likelihood score grounded in local precedent

Need to go deeper? See all pricing — from $0 to the $949 Complete Pack →

How it works

From address to answers in three steps

Tell us about your property

Enter any NSW address and describe what you want to build or open — in your own words. An extension, a knockdown-rebuild, a café, a childcare centre. No planning knowledge required.

Get your free analysis in minutes

We check zoning, permitted uses, heritage listings and planning constraints against live NSW Government data — then score your likelihood of success, grounded in how your council has actually decided similar applications.

Go deeper when you’re ready

Upgrade to a precedent-cited DA Report or a Pre-DA Meeting Report to understand every barrier, every required document, and walk into council fully prepared.

Read about the data and logic behind our assessments →

Included with every report

Ask Ella anything about your property — and get the clause that proves it

Ella is a planning advisor who has already read everything that applies to your address: the planning instruments, the controls, the heritage and hazard layers, and the real DA decisions your council has made nearby. Ask in plain English — “would 8.4 m fly here?”, “what will the neighbours object to?”, “what do I have to lodge?” — and she answers with the exact clause, page and precedent.

Every document that binds your siteYour council's LEP and DCP, the SEPPs, the zone's land use table and Schedule 1 — read in full, quoted by clause and page.
Every determination near youReal approvals and refusals from your council, with the DA number and the reason it went the way it did.
Answers you can checkEach answer cites its source and links to the page it came from. Nothing to take on faith.
Start with the free analysis Ella is unlocked for each property you buy a report for — and stays with it for good
Ella answering a planning question about a Milsons Point property, citing the DA number and the reason it was refused
A real answer from Ella — precedent, DA number and the reason behind it.
Infographic titled 'How Plan Advice Actually Works' — top: four foundation pillars (a corpus of real council decisions, a deterministic compliance engine, live government data, precedent-matched AI reasoning); bottom: the five-stage assessment pipeline (resolve your property, assemble the evidence, run the numbers, reason over precedent, produce a cited report).
The foundation beneath every report — and the five stages that run every time you ask us to look at a property.

The research behind every report

We read the record so you don’t have to

Every assessment is written against the planning law that applies to your site and the decisions councils have already made on proposals like yours. This is the body of material sitting behind it.

435,553
Development applications indexed across NSW
168,374
Applications tracked in our own determination corpus
144,619
Of those, carrying a recorded approval or refusal
18,541
Complying Development Certificates reviewed
1,486
Refusals analysed for their stated grounds
29,964
Notices of Determination read line by line
67,226
Statements of Environmental Effects analysed
3,320
Council officer assessment reports extracted
719
Local Planning Panel determinations captured
298
Clause 4.6 variation requests on file
129,360
Passages of planning law indexed and searchable

Drawn from 860 local environmental plans, development control plans, planning statements and State policies across all 128 NSW councils — quoted by clause and page, so every statement in your report can be checked against the source.

Corpus last measured 16 September 2026 — it grows every day.

Why Plan Advice

Planning advice that reflects how councils actually decide

Most planning tools recite legislation. Plan Advice goes further — it studies the way your council has determined comparable applications, so you see the real hurdles early and prepare for them properly.

Grounded in real council decisions

Our AI reads historical DA determinations from your council — so advice reflects how assessors actually decide, not just what the rulebook says.

Live NSW Government data

Zoning, heritage and planning overlays come straight from official NSW spatial services — always current, never guesswork.

Plain-English answers

No planning jargon. Clear explanations of what’s permitted, what’s risky, and exactly what to do next.

Know the risks before you spend

See the issues council is likely to raise — before you commit to architects, consultants and lodgement fees.

Every document, listed

A complete checklist of the documents your application needs, tailored to your project and your council.

Homes and businesses

From extensions, dual occupancies and rebuilds to cafés, small bars, retail fitouts and childcare — both worlds covered.

Ready? Start with your address.

Your free analysis takes just a few minutes — the form is right below.

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Property DetailsDevelopment Plans

Property & Development Plans

Tell us about your property and what you want to do

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Include fit-out, construction, equipment costs. Used to calculate accurate council fees.