Applications under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 have statutory timeframes, counted in business days and set by pathway: on PlanSA’s table, as at 9 October 2026, 5 for deemed-to-satisfy planning consent, 20 to 70 for performance assessed, and 95 for restricted. If a relevant authority misses the time for planning consent, the applicant may give it a deemed consent notice, and on the day the authority receives it the consent is taken to be granted.
General informationTimeframes change, and the figures here are as PlanSA published them on 9 October 2026. This guide is not advice about any application. PlanSA’s stages and timeframes page is the official place to check the current figures.
The stages, in order
How long an application takes, and which stages it passes through, depends on its pathway and on how complete it is when lodged. PlanSA sets out the usual stages for an application needing both planning and building consent:
Lodgement of the development application.
A request for more information, if the relevant authority makes one.
Referrals to agencies, where needed.
Public notification, where needed.
Planning assessment and the planning decision, then any appeals.
Building consent: the application begun, assessed and decided.
Full development approval, after which building work starts.
PlanSA says that last approval is issued by a local council or the State Planning Commission.
The timeframes
The Act itself states the duty plainly:
“A relevant authority should deal with an application as expeditiously as possible and within the time prescribed by the regulations.”
Section 125(1)
PlanSA summarises the prescribed times in a table. PlanSA adds that every kind of assessment opens with five business days for verification and closes with two business days in which the decision is issued.
| Consent | Assessment | Business days |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Deemed-to-satisfy | 5 |
| Planning | Performance assessed, no public notification and no referral | 20 |
| Planning | Performance assessed, no public notification, referral required, assessment manager the authority | 50 |
| Planning | Performance assessed, public notification required (15 days for notification, 15 for the applicant’s response), assessment panel or SCAP the authority | 70 |
| Planning | Restricted, public notification required (20 days for notification, 15 for the applicant’s response) | 95 |
| Building | Class 1 or 10 | 20, plus 10 if referred to SCAP |
| Building | Class 2 to 9 | 60, plus 10 if referred to SCAP |
| Land division | Up to 10 allotments (encroachment included), no new public road | 30 |
| Land division | All other land division | 60 |
For performance assessed development, the clock can stop: if the authority or a referral agency asks the applicant for more information, the time limit may be suspended, and it restarts when the information arrives.
When time runs out: the deemed consent notice
Section 125 gives an applicant a way forward when planning consent is not decided in time. It works in steps:
The notice. If the authority has not decided planning consent within the prescribed time, the applicant may, before it decides, give it a deemed consent notice in the prescribed manner and form, stating that consent should be granted.
The consent. On the day the authority receives the notice, it is taken to have granted planning consent, called a deemed planning consent.
Ten business days. Within 10 business days of receiving the notice, the authority may grant the consent itself, or grant it subject to conditions.
Conditions. The deemed consent includes any conditions the authority imposes in that time; if the authority does not grant the consent itself, it includes any standard condition a Commission practice direction specifies.
A challenge. If the authority considers the application should have been refused, it may apply to the Court to quash the consent, within 1 month after the deemed consent is taken to be granted unless the Court allows more time.
A performance assessed application with no notification and no referral sits on PlanSA’s 20-business-day line. Suppose that time passes with no request for information stopping the clock, and no decision. The applicant may then give a deemed consent notice. Consent is taken to be granted on the day the authority receives it; the authority may still grant it itself, with or without conditions, in the next 10 business days; and it has 1 month to ask the Court to quash it.
Other consents, and where the rule stops
For a development authorisation other than planning consent, such as building consent, section 125 gives a different route: after giving the authority 14 days’ notice under the regulations, the applicant may ask the Court for an order that the authority decide within a time the Court fixes, and the Court should then also order the authority to pay the applicant’s costs unless one of the Act’s exceptions applies, such as a delay not caused by the authority.
Section 125 does not apply at all to impact assessed development where the Minister is the relevant authority, or to a land division that would create one or more extra allotments within a character preservation area or an environment and food production area.
When a decision is made, the authority gives notice of it, and a refusal notice must give the reasons and any appeal rights. PlanSA calls this the decision notification form, which may carry notes or conditions to settle minor outstanding items before full approval. An authorisation lasts for the period the regulations prescribe, which the authority can extend. What can be done about a decision is in reviews and appeals; who makes it is in who decides.