Where a Development Application is needed, I prepare it, make the argument and lodge it. Plenty of Brisbane renovations need no application at all.
How much does a DA cost in Brisbane? Before that one's worth answering there's a better question underneath it — whether you need a Development Application at all. For a great many Brisbane renovations, the answer is no.
Two permissions get tangled together here. A Development Approval is council's answer to whether you may do this with the land — height, setbacks, site cover, character, demolition, overlays. A Building Approval, issued by a private certifier much later, is about whether the thing is built properly. If your work sits within the City Plan rules for your zone it can be accepted development: no application, no assessment.
The projects that do need one are usually recognisable — a pre-1947 house in a character overlay, demolition, a second storey pushing past height, or a site carrying flood, bushfire or heritage. Working out which applies to your address is the first job, and a quick one for me.
Plenty of Brisbane renovations need no Development Application at all. Well worth finding out before anyone assumes otherwise.
A Development Application is council's permission for what you propose to do with the land — height, setbacks, site cover, character, demolition, overlays. Not every project needs one, and where one is required, how it's framed and argued affects the outcome.
Handing over the part you were least looking forward to. I write the application, make the argument and handle the correspondence — and you get told what's happening in plain English.
You can lodge an application yourself, and for simple proposals people do it successfully. What you'd be carrying is the framing. The planning scheme is a set of rules to be answered, and an application that answers the wrong ones tends to come back with questions.
No architect can guarantee an approval, and I won't pretend otherwise. What I can do is tell you honestly what's likely before you spend money finding out, and put the application in the form that gives it its best chance. Knowing what this council will accept, what it won't, and what's genuinely worth arguing for isn't something you can look up — it comes from doing it here, over and over. And if your project needs no Development Application at all, I'll tell you that early.
It's really two questions, because there are two approvals. Planning: many internal renovations and modest additions that stay within the City Plan's setbacks, height and site cover are accepted development and need no Development Application. Building: almost anything structural needs a Building Approval from a private certifier either way. Moving a bathroom usually triggers a plumbing approval too. I'll work out which apply to your project.
Two costs, worth separating. Council's application fee is set in its published schedule of fees and charges — I'll check the current one for your category of development. Then there's preparing the application: the drawings, the planning assessment against the relevant codes, and any specialist reports your overlays require. A code-assessable house application sits at the modest end; an impact-assessable one going to public notification is a different order entirely.
RiskSMART is Brisbane City Council's fast-track pathway for lower-risk applications. Rather than council assessing from scratch, an accredited agent prepares the application and certifies that it meets the requirements, and council aims to decide considerably faster. Not every proposal qualifies, and you pay for that certification — so it's a trade of fee for time. Worth asking me about early.
A Development Approval is planning permission from council — whether you may build this, here, at this height, this close to the boundary, on a site with these overlays. A Building Approval is technical — structure, fire, waterproofing, energy, safety — assessed against the building code and normally issued in Queensland by a private certifier. Plenty of projects need a Building Approval and no Development Application.
The drawings — site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, usually shading or streetscape analysis — plus the forms and a written assessment explaining how the proposal responds to each applicable code and overlay. That written part is where applications are won. Depending on your site there may also be a flood report, arborist report or heritage advice. I prepare all of it.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.
