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For property developers

Screen a site before you pay anyone to look at it

Most sites you look at will not work. The cost of development research is mostly spent finding that out, one address at a time. This does the first pass: lot geometry, zoning, the controls that apply, what council has approved nearby, and what the finished product is likely to sell for.

Finding sites instead of checking them

Most tools answer a question about one address. The harder problem is the other direction: which of the thousands of listings on market right now sit on a block worth developing. Filter the whole live pool by development potential, high, moderate or low, and you get a site list rather than an inbox of agent alerts. Stack land size, zoning and price on top and the list gets short quickly.

110,000+ live listings currently carry a subdivision assessment, so the filter has something to bite on in most established markets.

What the screen actually looks at

Six inputs, all on the property page, none of which require you to open a council viewer.

Subdivision screening

Pro

A subdivision score, tier and rough lot estimate on 110,000+ live listings, from lot geometry, zoning and minimum lot size where published.

Filter a whole city down to the blocks scored worth a second look, instead of opening listings one at a time and measuring frontages by eye.

Development precedent

Pro

Development applications near a site, with what was proposed, the dwelling count, the cost and whether it was decided. 260,000+ records across NSW, VIC and SA.

The scheme tells you what is permissible. The neighbours' approvals tell you what this council actually passes, which is the number your feasibility should use.

Approval status filter

Pro

Narrow the browser to listings where a DA is already approved, or where the sale is subject to council approval.

A site someone else has already taken through council is a different purchase to a raw block: the planning risk is priced and the timeline is shorter. Worth searching for deliberately rather than stumbling on.

Planning controls

Essentials

Zoning code, and in New South Wales the authoritative minimum lot size, floor space ratio and height limit read from the state planning layers.

Three of the four inputs to a back of envelope yield, without opening a council map viewer for each address.

Overlays and constraints

Essentials

Heritage, flood and bushfire flags where the state authority publishes them, alongside land size and frontage where recorded.

Most sites die on a constraint rather than a number. Finding a heritage overlay during the screen costs nothing. Finding it after the option fee is a different afternoon.

End value and comparables

Essentials

Potential sell price with a published error rate, plus recent comparable sales filtered by distance, bedrooms and type.

The revenue line of the feasibility is the one that moves the answer most. Anchor it on what completed stock nearby actually sold for rather than on the agent's guide.

Suburb absorption

Essentials

Days on market, vacancy, stock levels and where the suburb sits in its cycle.

A four lot subdivision in a suburb already carrying twelve months of stock is a holding cost problem, not a margin problem. Worth knowing before settlement, not during the sell down.

Site shortlists for partners and lenders

Advisory

A shared list of sites you are chasing, tracked from lead through to settled, with a per-site shortlist you can send as a link or a branded PDF to a JV partner, a financier or your own acquisitions team.

The finance committee gets one link instead of six forwarded listings and a spreadsheet nobody keeps current, and it tells you at a glance which sites are still live and which one you already lost.

Tier labels show the lowest plan that includes the feature. Everything below your plan is included too.

What the neighbours got approved

A planning scheme describes what is permissible. It does not tell you what this particular council waves through, what it refuses, or how long it sits on a decision. The applications lodged around a site do.

We hold 260,000+ development applications across NSW, VIC and SA, with 140,000+ lodged in the last twelve months, shown against a property by distance with the proposal, dwelling count, cost and decision status. Three approvals for townhouses within two streets is a different risk profile to a street where nothing has been approved in five years, and neither fact appears in the listing.

Where the coverage stops

Worth stating plainly, because a screen you cannot calibrate is worse than no screen. Development applications cover NSW, VIC and SA only. Authoritative minimum lot size, floor space ratio and height come from New South Wales; elsewhere the assessment works from zoning and lot geometry. Overlay coverage is strongest in New South Wales and Victoria.

The property page tells you which layers it found for a given address rather than rendering a clear result when nothing was checked. On a site you are serious about, that distinction is the whole point.

Getting started

Subdivision screening and the nearby applications sit on Pro. Run an address you already know well through the property report first, listed or not, and see whether the assessment matches what you already worked out the slow way. That is a faster test of whether this is useful to you than any feature list. Plans are on the pricing page.

Questions developers ask

Does this replace a town planner?

No, and nothing that costs a subscription should claim to. It replaces the first two hours of a planner's time, the part where you work out whether a site is worth asking about at all. When a site survives this screen, you still pay someone to confirm it against the current scheme and the council's own overlays.

Which states do you hold development applications for?

NSW, VIC and SA. New South Wales is the deepest because its planning feed publishes coordinates directly. Victoria and South Australia arrive as addresses and are matched to a location afterwards, so a share of them carry no map position. Queensland, WA, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT are not covered.

How accurate is the subdivision assessment?

It is a screen, not a yield plan. It reads lot dimensions, zoning and, where the state publishes one, the minimum lot size that applies, then estimates whether a split is plausible and roughly how many lots. It does not model easements, sewer alignment, tree cover, battleaxe access or overshadowing, all of which have killed schemes that looked fine on paper.

Where does the minimum lot size come from?

The state planning authority where it is published as a spatial layer, which today means New South Wales for authoritative minimum lot size, floor space ratio and height. Elsewhere the assessment leans on zoning and lot geometry, and the property page says which of those it had rather than presenting a guess as a control.

Can I search for sites, or only look up addresses I already have?

Both. There is a Development Potential filter on the listings browser that narrows to blocks scored high, moderate or low, and a Development Approval filter for listings where a DA is already approved or the sale is subject to council approval. Combine either with land size, zoning and price, or just type in an address you are already circling. Bulk lookup takes 10 addresses per request on Pro and 30 on Advisory. Both filters need a paid plan.

Do you cover englobo or greenfield land?

Only where it is listed for sale and carries a land size we can read. The data is strongest on infill: existing houses on splittable blocks in established suburbs. If you are buying broadacre land at the urban growth boundary, this is the wrong tool.

Can I share a shortlist of sites with a partner or a lender?

Yes, on the Advisory plan. Add a partner, a lender or your own acquisitions lead as a contact, shortlist the sites you are chasing, and send one link they can open without an account. Track each site from lead through to settled, and export the shortlist as a branded PDF when you need something to attach to a paper. It is not a deal room, just a shared list and a status that beats a spreadsheet several people are editing at once.

Doing a different job?

Put a site you know through it

Take a block you have already assessed properly and see whether the screen reaches the same answer. If it does, it just saved you the next twenty.

The free account has no time limit and no card required. Paid plans are month to month.