4 October 2026. Sources are listed at the foot of the page. Last checked at source: 4 October 2026

It is 4.40 on a Thursday afternoon in October.

You are standing in a kitchen in Collaroy with a tape in one hand. The client has just said yes.

Second storey. Two bedrooms and a bathroom over the garage. You priced it tight, because it has been a thin few months and you wanted it.

She shakes your hand. You walk back to the ute feeling like the week finally turned.

That’s the next three months sorted.

It isn’t.

The plans still have to be drawn up properly. Then they go to Council. Then you wait.

Nobody in that kitchen mentioned a start date. Nobody asked what the timber will cost by the time you order it. The number on the quote was worked out on this week’s prices. The job belongs to next year.

Now run it forward ten weeks.

It is the middle of December. The plans are in. Nothing has come back. She rings on a Tuesday to ask what is taking so long, and you do not have an answer. You only have a feeling that it is somehow your fault.

Your supplier’s new price list is sitting in your inbox. You have not opened it. You already know which way it went.

And the crew you were going to put on her job in November needs something to do. So you take a smaller one, cheaper than you would like, to keep them moving.

You did not lose money in that kitchen.

You can lose it between the handshake and the first day on site. A little at a time, with nothing to show where it went.

I spent more than fifteen years as a BDM in construction, engineering and manufacturing before I did this. The price is rarely what goes wrong.

The price was right. The date was missing.

That’s not a pricing problem. That’s a calendar problem.

How long does a DA take on the Northern Beaches?

Northern Beaches Council’s median processing time was 91 days in the April to June 2026 quarter. The average was 111 days. In the same quarter a year earlier the median was 54 days. The figures are Council’s own, and they count development applications, modifications and reviews together.

Quarter	Median	Average
April to June 2025	54 days	74 days
July to September 2025	57 days	73 days
October to December 2025	72 days	83 days
January to March 2026	87 days	93 days
April to June 2026	91 days	111 days

Source: Northern Beaches Council, Development Activity Reports.

Read the column from the top. 54, 57, 72, 87, 91.

Median means the middle one. About half the applications Council decided that quarter took longer than 91 days. That is thirteen weeks at the middle, and nearly sixteen at the average.

Three honest limits.

“Decided” is not “approved”. Council reports applications determined, which is not the same as applications approved.

Council does not say how it counts the days.

And it has been here before. The median was 87 days in January to March 2024, and then it came back down. It can come down again.

But four quarters in a row have gone one way.

Now put a date on it.

Lodge on Tuesday 6 October, wait the median, and the answer lands on 5 January 2027. That assumes calendar days. It is arithmetic, not a forecast. Yours could come back sooner or later.

Either way, it is next year.

Can my neighbour still object to a renovation in NSW?

Not formally, on listed house jobs. A statewide Community Participation Plan took effect on 1 September 2026 and replaced every council’s own notification rules. Houses, extensions and dual occupancies up to two storeys are no longer publicly exhibited, provided they need no height or floor space variation. Neighbours are not notified. Anything they send Council is not a formal submission.

Northern Beaches Council put it to residents this way on 1 September:

“That means if your neighbour proposes one of these ‘lower impact’ developments, you will not be notified and you will not have an opportunity to comment on their proposal.”

That sentence was written for the neighbours. I could not find a version written for the trades.

So here is one. The statewide plan’s list of work that skips public exhibition includes:

• A house, up to two storeys
• Alterations and additions that finish at no more than two storeys
• A dual occupancy, up to two storeys
• A secondary dwelling
• Pools, sheds, pergolas and carports on an existing home
• Demolition
• Tree removal on private land
• A subdivision creating no more than five new lots

The main condition is height and floor space. The job must not need a variation to either control.

Ask for extra height and the neighbours are back in. The job goes on public exhibition for at least 14 days. The days from 20 December to 10 January do not count towards it.

Five things this rule does not do.

It does not approve anything. Council still assesses the job.

It does not silence anyone. A neighbour can still write to Council. The plan says that feedback “is not considered a formal submission”.

It does not reach back. Applications lodged before 1 September stay on the old rules.

It does not cover every job. Some categories are still exhibited whatever their size. Ask your designer whether yours is one.

And nobody knows yet whether it shortens the queue. The 91 days was measured from April to June. The rule started in September. Council has not published a quarter since.

So the neighbour is out of the formal process. The wait is not.

I am not a planner. Check your own job with your designer, your certifier or Council before you tell a client anything.

What does waiting on council approval cost a builder?

A fixed price does not move, but costs do. Cotality’s Cordell index had NSW construction costs rising 1.1% in the June 2026 quarter. On a job carrying A$153,000 of costs, one quarter at that rate adds about A$1,683. Two quarters adds about A$3,385. On a fixed price, that usually comes out of the builder’s margin.

I call it the wait tax. It is what a job costs you between the yes and the start.

These are example numbers. Put your own in.

• The job: a A$180,000 second storey
• Your costs: A$153,000
• Your margin: A$27,000
• The index: NSW construction costs rose 1.1% in the three months to June 2026. Cotality published that on 22 July 2026
• The wait: Council’s 91 days is one quarter on its own. Add drawings, lodgement and a construction certificate. Call it two quarters from handshake to first day

One quarter at that rate adds about A$1,683. Two quarters adds about A$3,385.

Your price did not move. So your margin did.

A$27,000 became A$23,615. Nobody has picked up a tool.

One caution, because one quarter is not a forecast. The quarter before, the same NSW figure was 0.2%. Across Australia the index rose 2.8% for the full year. At that pace, two quarters adds about A$2,100.

Pick whichever rate you believe. The sum comes out of the same pocket.

Can you pass it on?

The Housing Industry Association answers that in a Q&A for its members on price increases and delays. The document is marked March 2021:

“In most cases the answer is no, but it can depend on the type of contract you are using and any specific clauses in that contract.”

So the time to deal with the wait is before the contract.

After it, the wait is yours.

Should I drop my price to win work in a quiet market?

No. In August 2026 New South Wales was the only state the Bureau of Statistics reported a fall for in private house approvals. They were down 4.5% to 2,167, seasonally adjusted. The cash rate rose to 4.60% on 29 September. Cut your price, then wait two quarters to start, and you give up margin twice.

This is the part that will tempt you.

The Bureau released August’s building approvals on 30 September. Across Australia, private house approvals rose 3.7%. In New South Wales they fell.

The Bureau’s own words: “New South Wales (-4.5%) recorded the only decrease.”

The day before, the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.60%.

One month of figures is not a trend. But fewer house approvals and dearer money point the same way.

If I don’t sharpen the pencil, the next bloke will.

He might. Look at what it does to the sum.

Take 5% off that A$180,000 job to win it. That is A$9,000. Then wait the two quarters.

A$27,000 of margin is now A$14,615.

That is A$12,385 gone. Forty-six per cent of your margin, and the job has not started.

A discount and a delay do not cancel out. They stack.

Andy Shaw ran a bricklaying business for fifteen years and now runs Brickies Network. He was talking about bricklaying, not marketing, on The Good Builder’s podcast. The write-up was published on 25 September:

“If you’re talking piece rates, it automatically makes everyone the same,” he said. “Which we’re not.”

His point was about his own trade. The next bit is mine.

When the only thing a client can compare is the number, the cheapest number wins. And you are the one who told them the number was the thing to look at.

I have never told an operator to discount. I am not starting now.

Three ways to answer a quiet month

	Cut the price	Leave the quote open	Date the quote and price the wait
What the client sees	A cheaper number	A number with no end date	A number, a date and a reason
What happens when the approval lands	You start on a thinner margin	You start on old prices	You start, or you re-quote before anything is signed
Who carries the cost drift	You	You	Known before signing
What it teaches the client	That price was the test	Nothing	That you know how this council works

How do I protect my margin when a job is waiting on council approval?

Deal with the wait before the contract is signed. Put an end date on the price. Write Council’s published processing time into the quote. Agree what happens if the approval comes back after that date. Check early whether the design needs a height or floor space variation. The six steps are below.

1. Put an end date on the price. Not “valid for 30 days” buried in the terms. A date, on page one, next to the number.

2. Put Council’s number in writing. One line does it: “Northern Beaches Council’s median processing time for applications was 91 days in April to June 2026.” Link Council’s own report. The client who read it in your quote is far less likely to ring in week ten asking what is taking so long.

3. Re-quote before you sign, not after. If the approval lands after your end date and nothing has been signed, price it again on that week’s costs. If you have taken a deposit or signed anything, even a preliminary agreement, get advice before you re-price. Do not write your own price-rise clause. HIA’s Q&A, marked March 2021, says those clauses are banned in some places. It adds that “HIA contracts do not include rise and fall or cost escalation clauses”. What your contract can say is not my lane. Ask HIA, Master Builders or your solicitor.

4. Ask the height question at design stage. Does this design need a height or floor space variation? If it does, the neighbours are back in for at least 14 days. That is a choice a client can make knowingly, if somebody tells them.

5. Ask whether the job can skip the DA. NSW Planning says complying development approvals “can be issued in as little as 20 days”. It describes the usual process as 20 days for assessment and 14 days for neighbour notification. Not every job or site qualifies. The ones that do are a different conversation.

6. Show the client the sum. The same sum you just did for yourself. What the job costs if it starts in October. What it costs if it starts in April. People rarely argue with a date they were shown in advance.

One limit on all six. A dated quote covers you up to the approval. It does not cover the build. Costs that move once the job is running are a contract question, and that one goes to HIA or your solicitor too.

Then fix your own calendar.

A job you have won is not a booked quarter. A book that looks full in October can have nothing on site in November, with every job sitting in a queue.

The kitchen conversation, done properly

She asks the question every client asks.

“So when can you start?”

The old answer: “Soon as Council comes back.”

The new answer: “Council’s own figures say about three months at the middle. I’ve priced this to hold until the end of February. If the approval isn’t back by then, I re-quote before we sign anything.”

Same job. Same price. One of those builders gets a phone call in December. The other one already had it, in the kitchen, in October.

Does this apply to you?

If you fix burst pipes at 2am, no. Emergency and maintenance work does not wait on Council.

If you build, extend or renovate, yes.

If you sub to someone who does, also yes. You feel it second-hand. The builder’s start date moves, and yours moves with it.

What this is really about

Council’s own page shows 91 days. You had to go looking for it.

The neighbour rule changed on 1 September. The notice was written for residents.

That is how it goes. The things that decide your margin get published somewhere you are not looking, on a day you were on a roof.

Pull out one live quote tonight. Put a date on it. Do the sum.

You won the job. Now keep the margin.

Where these numbers came from

We keep Northern Beaches Trade Watch for exactly this. The rules, the roads, the paperwork and the platforms. Dated, sourced, updated every fortnight. It is free.

If your quotes have gone quiet, read Your quotes didn’t dry up. They changed job.

And if you want to know whether the machines name your business when a homeowner asks, run the free Snapshot. Ninety seconds, no credit card.

This is general information, not planning, contract or legal advice.

Sources, all read on 4 October 2026: Northern Beaches Council, Development Activity Reports. Northern Beaches Council, news item, 1 September 2026. NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Community Participation Plans, and the statewide plan itself. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Building Approvals, August 2026. Reserve Bank of Australia, 29 September 2026. Cotality, Cordell Construction Cost Index, 22 July 2026. Housing Industry Association, Q&A: Managing price increases and delays, marked Version 1, 24 March 2021. NSW Planning, Complying development. The Good Builder, 25 September 2026.

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