I Analyzed 23,973 Development Applications Across Australia. Five Patterns Stood Out.

I pulled a fresh snapshot from the DA Leads database on 7 April 2026. It now covers 23,973 development applications across 341 councils in eight states and territories.

The point of this dataset is not to predict every building job in Australia. It is to show where formal planning activity is actually landing. Once I reran the numbers on the current snapshot, five patterns stood out.

National DA activity montage: a conceptual editorial image for Australia-wide development application patterns across councils and project types. Source: DA Leads editorial illustration based on a national internal database snapshot, queried 2026-04-07.

1. Logan is not just busy. It is in a different league.

Logan City Council sits on 1,744 DAs in the current snapshot. Brisbane is next on 790. City of Sydney is on 320. Camden is on 303. Casey is on 204.

That gap changes how you should think about Southeast Queensland. Logan is not a fringe side story. It is one of the main places where visible development activity is stacking up right now.

2. Renovation is the largest trade category in the whole database.

The biggest category is not subdivision. It is not new dwellings either. It is renovation and extension, with 4,582 records, or 19.1% of the full database.

For tradies, the takeaway is clear: the planning-visible pipeline is still heavily homeowner-led. If you work in extensions, structural alterations, or bigger remodelling jobs, this is not a side category. It is the main one. We dig into the council-level breakdown in our renovation hotspots article.

3. Granny flats are still overwhelmingly a NSW story.

The national granny flat and secondary dwelling count is 996. NSW accounts for 727 of those, or 73.0%. Queensland is next on 169. Victoria is back on 72.

Granny flats are not absent elsewhere. But the approval-visible pipeline is still concentrated in NSW. If your product, content, or outreach angle depends on granny flat demand, NSW is still the obvious first market. Our granny flat permits guide for Victoria explains why VIC numbers stay lower.

4. Tree removal is not broad. It is concentrated.

Tree removal looks like a niche until you rank it by council. Boroondara alone has 84 tree removal DAs in the current snapshot. The next council, Monash, has 28. After that the counts flatten quickly.

Useful knowledge if you sell to arborists or adjacent trades. You do not need a national tree-removal strategy first. You need a council shortlist.

5. Regional NSW is not quiet.

Dubbo Regional Council has 75 DAs in the current snapshot. Orange has 64. Bathurst has 59. More importantly, they are not one-category markets.

• Dubbo mixes commercial / industrial, renovation, sheds and subdivision.
• Orange mixes new dwellings, renovation and commercial work.
• Bathurst spreads activity across renovation, new dwellings, sheds and commercial.

The mix matters because it suggests these councils are not just passive overflow from Sydney. They have their own working pipeline.

What I Would Do With This

If I were targeting work off this dataset, I would not start with a national spray. I would pick one of three lanes:

The council directory is still the easiest place to drill into a specific market if you want to test one of those lanes against your own service area.

Sources and Further Reading

• DA Leads internal database snapshot, queried 2026-04-07
• Guide to Victoria's planning system: Planning permits