Save Time on Your Home Building Project with a CDC

If you're planning a knockdown rebuild, building a new home, or undertaking home renovations, you may be aware that obtaining council approval is an essential part of the process. But did you know that you can save a lot of time and money with a Complying Development Certificate (CDC)? In this article, we'll explain what a CDC is and how it can streamline your home building project.

What is a CDC and How Can It Benefit You?

Before you start your new home, knockdown-rebuild or home renovation project, you need to get planning approval. This is usually done with a Development Application (DA) and it usually takes months as Councils everywhere are overloaded and under-resourced! There is however a much better alternative. 

Rather than wait months for a DA, you can instead get a complying development certificate (CDC) and start building sooner, as it takes only weeks to obtain approval. CDCs are also more reliable than DAs as they don't require considering submissions from neighbours and the public, making the process simpler. Instead of applying to Council, you will just need a certifier to confirm your project precisely meets all the applicable CDC rules. You don’t even need a separate construction certificate (CC) because the CDC acts as a CC, saving even more waiting time.

How Do I Know If I am Eligible for a CDC?

Not every project or site is eligible for a CDC, and even when you can do one, the design limits must be followed exactly in full. To find these rules and work out if your project is eligible, you must check the relevant legislation such as the Codes SEPP or Housing SEPP. Within these documents you’ll have to read the Housing Code, Greenfield Code, Rural Code, Inland Code, and Housing Alterations Code to figure out which rules apply to your project.

After reading these rules, you will have to find a lot of information about your property. This includes checking if your property is on fire prone land, in an environmentally sensitive area and finding out if your address is listed on any heritage maps, amongst a number of other items. 

The NSW Government has a guide to completing a CDC project, but it is a whopping 141 pages long and covers many different use cases. We know that all this can be daunting to navigate when you just want to move forward with your new home, knockdown rebuild or renovation. You probably wish you could get some help finding the answers, but Councils are too busy to give detailed advice, and it costs a lot of money to engage a town planner or architect just to answer questions.

How Does PropCode Help You?

That's where our expert town-planning experience comes in. We've built a platform that instantly checks hundreds of CDC rules to get the answers for your property, giving you the confidence to proceed with your project. Search your address on our website and order your unique property report and PropCode will instantly analyse your property for CDC eligibility.

Our platform checks all those rules for any location in NSW, determining if your site is eligible to do a new home or renovation project with CDC. Our report will also give you a comprehensive list of things you can include in your design, along with key parameters such as the maximum building height, maximum floor area, setbacks, etc. Plus, our platform even lets you know if you can build a granny flat with a CDC, giving you even more flexibility and savings.

See a full sample report here showing the depth of our analysis and everything that is included in a report. PropCode is used and trusted by architects and property professionals today and we offer an accuracy guarantee for your confidence.

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