New South Wales Planning Reforms 2026

A system redesign and shift towards pattern-based planning

From a town planners perspective, NSW is moving toward a far more system-managed planning environment. While many of the reforms sound technical, new authorities, new pathways, new strategic frameworks, their practical impact on development is very real.

What’s being implemented?

• Targeted assessment pathways
• The Development Coordination Authority
• The Housing Delivery Authority
• Updated to the Housing Pattern book for low and mid-rise housing
• A new Transport Oriented Development (TOD) SEPP

1. A new assessment system: faster pathways, stronger state oversight

NSW is introducing new targeted and state-led assessment pathways, supported by bodies such as:

• The Targeted Assessment Pathway
• The Development Coordination Authority
• The expanded role of the Housing Delivery Authority

What this means in practice:

In simple terms, NSW is trying to:

• Take complex or priority housing projects out of slow local systems
• Coordinate approvals across multiple agencies more tightly
• Reduce delays caused by fragmented referrals and inconsistent decision-making

For developers, this creates a two-speed system:

• Priority housing and major projects may move faster through state pathways
• More routine projects will still rely heavily on council processes

Key implications for developers

These pathways are not automatic. Access to them will depend on location, housing yield and typology, alignment with state housing priorities and quality of documentation at lodgment.

In practice, this reform will reward teams who make pathway strategy decisions before they buy land or finalise a scheme. We expect to see a growing gap between projects deliberately structured to qualify for state-led pathways and projects that discover too late they do not meet the criteria and are forced back into slower council processes.

Where Planna fits

This is exactly where early planning intelligence matters. By mapping sites against state pathways, housing priorities and likely assessment routes, Planna helps teams understand which pathway a project is likely to fall into before lodgement — not after months in the system.

2. The NSW Housing Pattern Book

Now, we’ve been talking about this pattern book for a while, and that because it’s one of the most significant changes we’ve seen to the NSW planning system for a while.

This book introduces pre-defined design patterns for terraces, townhouses, dual occupancies, manor homes and mid-rise apartments.

What the government is trying to achive:

Their intent is to improve design consistency and speed up approval for compliant housing forms. The NSW Housing Pattern Book is built around a series of pre designed, already approved housing designs that have been assessed against relevant planning and design criteria for defined site conditions. Where a site meets those specific parameters, the approved design can be applied through a clear deemed to comply style pathway, reducing the back and forth between council and developers.

This reform targets residential developers, existing landowners, small building companies and housing agencies, aiming to provide “certainty and high quality designs at a low up-front cost”

This pattern based planning approach shifts risk upstream. Instead of design matters being slowly resolved during assessment, the key issue becomes whether a project genuinely satisfies the eligibility criteria for a specific approved pattern. If it does, it can access the faster pathway. If it does not, a standard design and assessment process will still apply.

We’ve been studying and integrating this Pattern Book into our software so we can help teams quickly test whether a site and concept are realistically capable of meeting the criteria for an approved pattern before design fees and planning time are heavily invested.

Projects that treat the Pattern Book as a generic design catalogue, rather than a framework of site specific approved designs tied to clear criteria, are likely to face redesigns and delays.

To check out more about NSW Pattern Book, click the link here.

3. Transport Oriented Development (TOD) SEPP: new rules around stations

The new Transport Oriented Development (TOD) SEPP introduces targeted planning controls around identified heavy rail and metro stations across NSW. Rather than being a blanket rezoning of all land near transport, the reforms apply to specifically mapped precincts and operate alongside existing local environmental plans and development control plans.

This is one of the most commercially significant reforms in NSW because it directly links planning uplift to proximity to strategic transport infrastructure.

What does the TOD SEPP do?

Within nominated station precincts, the TOD reforms generally:

1. Introduce increased building height and floor space ratio controls for certain residential and mixed use development.
2. Permit mid rise and higher density residential flat buildings in locations that were previously limited to lower density forms.
3. Adjust or override certain local controls where the SEPP applies, subject to mapped areas and eligibility criteria.
4. Support housing supply within walking distance of major public transport, typically within an 800 metre catchment, where specifically mapped.

Importantly, the uplift does not automatically apply to every property near a station. The land must fall within the mapped TOD area and satisfy the detailed provisions of the SEPP. In some cases, additional criteria, design standards and interaction with other overlays such as heritage, flooding or design excellence provisions still apply.

Therefore, this reform focuses on increasing development capacity in carefully defined station precincts. It has already begun to reshape feasibility modelling, site competition and assumptions about what constitutes highest and best use in these locations.

Planna’s perspective

We are already seeing aggressive positioning around future Sydney Metro West infrastructure, particularly in areas associated with stations such as Westmead, North Strathfield, Burwood North, Five Dock and The Bays, with major property players including Lendlease and Mirvac active in surrounding precincts.

This early market response reflects a broader pattern. Developers are seeking to secure sites ahead of infrastructure delivery because they understand that mapped planning uplift and regulatory certainty can significantly influence land value.

However, TOD controls and their boundaries are nuanced. The mapped areas, interaction with existing zoning, minimum lot sizes, height maps and other overlays can materially affect whether a site genuinely benefits from TOD uplift. Traditional zoning maps alone often do not provide a complete picture.

Planna helps development teams cut through that uncertainty by interrogating the mapped TOD provisions, underlying zoning framework and site specific constraints to determine where genuine high yield potential applies and where assumptions may not hold up.

What this means for developments across NSW?

The 2026 reforms in New South Wales are fundamentally reshaping the planning landscape, and developers must approach projects with a far more strategic mindset.

The new targeted assessment pathways and the Housing Delivery Authority allow for faster approvals, but only for projects that are carefully prepared, with early due diligence, clear strategic alignment, and high-quality documentation at lodgement. Speed is no longer just about how quickly applications are submitted; it is determined by how well projects are structured to fit these state-led pathways.

Design quality is also central. The Housing Pattern Book provides templates for low and mid-rise housing, while the TOD SEPP introduces new controls around rail and metro stations. Projects that do not meet these standards risk delays or being unable to access faster pathways, making early integration of design requirements essential.

Planning advice has evolved accordingly, strategic planning is now a key driver for commericial success.

Planna positions itself ahead of the game by integrating these reforms into our custom-built software, keeping our team and our clients up to date with the latest planning changes. By combining state pathways, pattern book compliance, TOD controls, and strategic growth frameworks in a single platform, we enable development teams to make informed decisions, identify optimal pathways, and mitigate risks before committing time, money, and resources to a project. This approach allows developers to stay ahead, accelerate delivery, and ensure projects are strategically aligned with the evolving NSW planning system.

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