Timeline evidence — how long
Approval timeline assessment
How long will approval actually take — and what makes it longer?
The problem
How long will approval actually take — and what makes it longer?
Holding costs and interest accrue by the day, so a financial model is only as sound as its approval assumption. “About eight to twelve weeks” carries that assumption without evidence, and a two-month error runs straight through the returns.
The harder truth is that a single number cannot be right. Durations are a distribution, and the largest single variable — whether the authority comes back asking for more information — is unknowable on the day you lodge. Reporting one figure hides both facts.
How it is produced
How this report is produced
We match your application’s profile against our own delivered-case library and the published research we co-authored on 20,000+ South Australian planning applications. You get ranges, never a single number — and the match criteria are widened step by step, with every widening disclosed.
Profile your application
Council, development type, assessment pathway, and the elements that travel with it — referrals, notification, demolition, regulated trees.
Match against delivered cases
Same council, same type, same pathway first. Where that set is too small we widen — and every widening is disclosed, so you know exactly how close the comparison is.
Report a range, never a point
Quartiles and a median, so you can see the spread rather than a single number standing in for it.
Split the RFI scenario out
Durations with and without a request for information are reported separately, because they are different events and you cannot know on lodgement day which one you are in.
What arrives
Inside the report
Matched duration ranges
Quartiles and median from the comparison set, with the set's size stated.
Match-widening trail
Each step taken to build a usable comparison, and what was relaxed to get there.
RFI and no-RFI scenarios
Reported as two cases rather than blended into one misleading average.
Element time increments
What the presence of a referral, a notification or a demolition is associated with, element by element.
Refusals and withdrawals
Reported as a proportion, and deliberately kept out of the duration statistics — their clock measures something else.
What it will not claim
The boundary, stated
An evidence-based assessment from historical cases — not a guarantee of any approval or timeframe.
Who needs it
When this report earns its keep
About to commit
Is the approval duration in your financial model a guess, or an estimate?
Read more for your situation →
Before you enquire
Questions we get asked about this report
Where does this evidence come from?
From applications we have taken through ourselves, and from published research we co-authored analysing more than 20,000 South Australian planning consent applications.
Can you commit to a timeframe?
No. This is an evidence-based assessment of what comparable applications have taken. Timing is the authority's, and nobody who tells you otherwise is describing how the system works.
Why does the RFI rate matter so much?
Because it is the part you can influence. A request for information is most often triggered by an incomplete lodgement — which makes the RFI rate the closest thing there is to a measure of what preparing the application properly is worth.
Enquire about the approval timeline assessment
Every report is scoped to your site. Tell us the address and what you are deciding, and we will confirm scope and fees before anything starts — including if a different report should come first.