According to the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the current fragmented system of separate planning and building approvals is creating unnecessary delays and costs for homebuyers.
The organisation is advocating for a “One House One Approval” (OHOA) initiative to simplify the process.
HIA Hunter Executive Director Craig Jennion said there was a range of challenges in the current system.
“One of the key challenges is the complex approval system that leads to protracted approval timeframes, higher approval costs and negatively impacted housing affordability,” Mr Jennion said.
The NSW government has taken steps to address these issues by launching a council league table in 2024 to monitor the performance of development application lodgement and determination across the state.
The league table has revealed promising results for the Hunter and Central Coast regions, with nine of the eleven councils meeting the Phase 1 goal of lodging development applications within 14 days.
Maitland City Council has emerged as the state leader, with an average lodgement time of just two days.
For development assessment times, Singleton Council leads the Hunter region with an average of 55 days, closely followed by Port Stephens Council at 57 days for the 2024-25 financial year.
The City of Newcastle has also been recognised for its Accelerated Development Applications initiative, which provides a faster, less bureaucratic approvals process for straightforward developments.
Despite these improvements, the HIA believes more comprehensive reform is needed.
The One House One Approval initiative would replace the current system with a single, unified approval process specifically for building new houses on residential land.
While NSW’s complying development process represents a partial step toward OHOA, many approvals are still diverted to councils for traditional development assessment, resulting in lengthy and complex approval processes for many households.
Mr Jennion said that current assessment goals allowing for up to 115 days post-lodgement are inadequate.
“Having assessment goals like we do that can be up to average of 115 days post lodgement via the league tables is simply not fast enough,” he said.
The HIA is calling for amendments to the assessment process to ensure single dwellings on residential land are exempt or code assessable.
They also advocate for greater use of AI and private certification to further reduce approval delays.
“We need comprehensive reform and One House One Approval can be a key driver to unlocking the housing that Australia desperately needs by simplifying and accelerating the building approval process for single-dwelling homes,” Mr Jennion said.
