Complying development is the same instrument everywhere in NSW: one SEPP, one set of codes, one fast track past the council assessment queue. Yet how much of a local government area's building activity actually travels on it varies by a factor of nearly ten. In Ryde, 69% of new-proposal applications over the past five years were complying development certificates. In Clarence Valley, 7%.
We computed the share for every NSW council with at least 1,500 new-proposal applications in our database, 70 councils in all, from 518,114 NSW applications lodged between April 2021 and July 2026. The spread is wide, the pattern behind it is remarkably legible, and none of it is about council attitude, because a CDC never crosses a council planner's desk in the first place.
All figures computed from the DA Leads national application database, snapshot 13 July 2026. New proposals only, modifications excluded; CDC share = complying development certificates as a share of CDCs plus development applications, by lodgement LGA.
The top of the table: Sydney's middle and outer west
The full top fifteen:
| # | Council | CDC share | CDCs | All new proposals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryde | 69.2% | 5,450 | 7,873 |
| 2 | Fairfield | 68.3% | 5,394 | 7,900 |
| 3 | Campbelltown | 67.6% | 5,931 | 8,779 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 64.0% | 9,268 | 14,470 |
| 5 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 59.5% | 8,446 | 14,190 |
| 6 | Burwood | 59.4% | 1,076 | 1,810 |
| 7 | Parramatta | 58.0% | 5,922 | 10,217 |
| 8 | Georges River | 56.2% | 3,295 | 5,862 |
| 9 | Penrith | 55.6% | 5,470 | 9,839 |
| 10 | Camden | 55.2% | 7,315 | 13,245 |
| 11 | Canada Bay | 55.1% | 2,438 | 4,427 |
| 12 | Blacktown | 54.0% | 10,606 | 19,636 |
| 13 | Willoughby | 53.1% | 2,640 | 4,971 |
| 14 | Ku-ring-gai | 52.8% | 3,663 | 6,942 |
| 15 | Cumberland | 48.8% | 4,399 | 9,020 |
For scale: the statewide CDC share over the same window is 36.6%. Everything in this table runs well above it, and Blacktown is the volume king even at "only" 54%: 10,606 CDCs in five years, the most of any NSW council.
Two different machines are producing these numbers. In the growth corridors, greenfield estates mint exactly the lots the Housing Code was written for: regular shapes, standard residential zoning, no heritage, freshly engineered drainage. Austral, the single busiest CDC suburb in the state with 4,368 certificates, sits in Liverpool; Oran Park (1,330) is Camden; Melonba (1,301) is Blacktown. In the established middle ring, Ryde, Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Georges River, the machine is knockdown-rebuild: post-war lots of comfortable size, R2 and R3 zoning, and volume builders whose standard designs are engineered to fit the complying envelope before the block is even bought.
The bottom of the table: the regions, plus one famous exception
The bottom fifteen is almost entirely regional: Clarence Valley (7.3%), Snowy Monaro (8.0%), Blue Mountains (9.0%), Coffs Harbour (9.3%), Dubbo (9.5%), then Nambucca Valley, Eurobodalla, Singleton, Byron, Port Stephens, Yass Valley, Lismore, Tweed and Mid-Coast, before the list reaches its one metropolitan member: Woollahra, at 19.5%.
The instrument is identical to Ryde's. The land is not, and the exclusions written into the Codes SEPP do most of the explaining:
- Heritage kills it outright. A heritage item or conservation area is an absolute bar to complying development for a new dwelling under clause 1.19. Woollahra's Victorian terrace fabric is blanketed by conservation areas, which is how an affluent, high-demand LGA five kilometres from the CBD ends up in the bottom fifteen.
- Hazard layers shrink it. Bushfire-prone land is compatible with CDC only up to BAL-29, and the Blue Mountains is one of the most bushfire-mapped LGAs in the country. Flood-affected lots carry extra standards and often tip to a DA, which weighs on the Northern Rivers: Lismore 18.2%, Byron 15.5%, Tweed 18.5%.
- Zoning and lot fabric do the rest. Large rural and environmental zonings sit outside the Housing Code's residential zones entirely, and irregular older lots fail minimum-width tests that a Box Hill subdivision passes by design.
There is a market layer on top: volume builders and the private certifier ecosystem concentrate where the eligible lots are, so eligibility advantages compound. Our data cannot split the statutory effect from the market one, but the direction is consistent across all 70 councils.
Why this table is worth money
If you are buying land to build on, the table is a prior. In Campbelltown, two of every three new proposals travel on a certificate with a median determination of days, not months; in Eurobodalla the default assumption should be a DA and a council queue. We unpacked the timing gap in the companion piece: CDC vs DA in NSW, what 518,000 applications say.
If you are underwriting a specific lot, the LGA average is only a prior. Eligibility is decided at the lot: zone, size, frontage, heritage, bushfire, flood, and half a dozen other exclusions. Our free approval pathway check runs those factors for any address and returns an indicative three-state verdict with reasons, honestly marking anything our data cannot see.
If you sell to builders, the two ends of this table are different markets. High-CDC LGAs move fast and privately: by the time a certificate appears, the builder is mobilising. Low-CDC LGAs surface intent weeks earlier through the public DA exhibition process. Our leads feed carries both tracks, flagged by pathway, and the map shows every application on the parcel it belongs to.
FAQ
Which NSW council has the highest share of complying development? Among councils with at least 1,500 new-proposal applications since April 2021, Ryde leads at 69.2%, followed by Fairfield (68.3%) and Campbelltown (67.6%). The statewide average is 36.6%.
Which NSW council has the lowest CDC share? Clarence Valley, at 7.3% of new-proposal applications, with Snowy Monaro (8.0%) and the Blue Mountains (9.0%) close behind. The bottom of the table is dominated by regional and hazard-constrained LGAs.
Does a low CDC share mean the council is anti-development? No. CDCs are determined by certifiers without council assessment, so the share reflects land eligibility under the Codes SEPP (zoning, heritage, bushfire, flood, lot dimensions) and the local building market, not council decision-making.
Why is Woollahra so low when it is wealthy inner Sydney? Heritage. A heritage item or conservation area is an absolute bar to complying development for new dwellings, and Woollahra's building fabric is heavily covered by conservation areas, so most projects there must take the DA route regardless of budget.
Can I check whether a specific lot qualifies for CDC? Indicatively, yes, and free: the approval pathway check screens any NSW address against 13 factors from the Codes SEPP and returns a three-state verdict with the driving reasons. It is a desktop screen, not planning advice; easements, draft listings and s10.7 matters still need the usual checks.
Where do these numbers come from? Computed on 13 July 2026 from the DA Leads national application database, covering NSW applications lodged 9 April 2021 to 11 July 2026 via the NSW Planning Portal's public data. New proposals only; councils with fewer than 1,500 applications are excluded from the league table.
