Queensland development applications go through one standard process, set out in the Development Assessment Rules, so that applications are assessed equitably. The formal process has five parts: application, referral, information request, public notification and decision. Not every part applies to every application. Applications for State facilitated development follow a separate chapter of the Rules and are decided by the chief executive.
General informationThis page summarises version 3.0 of the DA Rules, which the Queensland Government lists as the current version, published and in effect from 18 July 2025. It is not planning or legal advice for any application. The Rules themselves, and the assessment manager handling an application, are the authority on its periods.
How the Rules count a day
In the DA Rules a “day” is a business day, and the days from 26 December to 1 January are not counted. Several periods in the Rules can be lengthened by agreement between the applicant and the authority concerned, and the applicant can stop a current period by notice, except where the application has lapsed or the action is required by an enforcement or show cause notice.
Two things sit outside the five parts: pre-lodgement discussions before an application, and appeals after a decision.
The five parts, chamber by chamber
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Application
The application goes to the assessment manager in the approved form, with the required documents and fee. If the applicant does not own the premises, a material change of use or reconfiguring a lot generally also needs the owner’s written consent (section 51).
The assessment manager has a confirmation period of 10 days, starting the day after it receives the application, to decide whether the application is properly made. If it is, it counts as properly made from the day it arrived, unless the assessment manager gives an action notice listing what is missing. Once the applicant has done everything the action notice asks and says so, the application is properly made from that day, and a confirmation notice follows within 5 days.
Confirmation: 10 business days
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Referral
The Planning Regulation 2017 says when an application needs a referral agency. Where one does, the applicant gives each agency a copy of the application within 10 days after part 1 ends, or a longer agreed period. The agency has 5 days to confirm the application is properly referred. It then gives its response within the period listed for it in schedule 2 of the Rules, or 25 days where none is listed, unless a longer period is agreed. Part 2 ends when every response is in, or the time for them has run out.
Response: 25 business days unless schedule 2 says otherwise
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Information request
The assessment manager may ask the applicant for more information within 10 days after part 1 ends. A referral agency may ask within the first 10 days of its own assessment period, copying the request to the assessment manager. The applicant then has 3 months to respond, or longer by agreement, and may give all of the information, part of it, or notice that none will be given.
Applicant’s response: 3 months
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Public notification
Only impact assessable applications, and applications that include a variation request, are publicly notified. The applicant does the notifying. It starts within 20 days of a point the Rules set: the day after part 3 ends, or an earlier point where no information request will be made. The notice, the submissions and the time allowed for them have their own guide.
Start: within 20 business days
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Decision
The assessment manager cannot decide until every part relevant to the application has ended. It then has a decision period of 35 days to assess and decide, or longer by agreement, and gives its decision notice within 5 days of deciding. Where there is a concurrence agency, the decision cannot be made within 10 days of the last concurrence response unless the applicant says it will not make representations about that response. Part 5 is complete when the decision notice is given.
Decision: 35 business days, then notice within 5
How the days add up: an illustration
Take a code assessable application that is properly made when lodged and needs no referral and no public notification, where no information request is made, nobody agrees to extend anything and no period is stopped. With parts 2 and 4 not relevant and no information request, the decision period starts the day after part 1 ends.
| Step | Longest, in business days |
|---|---|
| Part 1: confirmation period | 10 |
| Part 5: decision period | 35 |
| Decision notice given | 5 |
| From receipt to decision notice, at the outside | 50 (10 + 35 + 5) |
Now suppose the assessment manager does make an information request, on the 4th business day after part 1 ends. The decision period counts the days the assessment manager took to make that request, so once the applicant’s response ends part 3, 31 of the 35 days remain (35 − 4).
When the decision period runs out
What happens next depends on the category of assessment. For an application that needs only code assessment, if the assessment manager does not decide within the period allowed, the applicant may, before a decision, give a deemed approval notice saying the application should be approved. On the day the assessment manager receives it, an approval is taken to have been given.
Section 64 excludes some code applications: one that includes a variation request, one where a referral agency has directed refusal or approval of only part, and one where the building assessment provisions are an assessment benchmark, among others. After a deemed approval notice arrives, the assessment manager has 10 business days in which it may give a decision notice approving the application, with or without development conditions; if it gives none, the deemed approval carries standard conditions made by the Minister, as well as any conditions a referral agency, the Minister or the chief executive directed.
For other applications, including those needing impact assessment, a decision not made by the end of the period under the Rules is a “deemed refusal”, and an appeal against a deemed refusal may be started at any time after it happens.