Good signs for investment on the Sunshine Coast


Sunshine Coast Council has approved 528 development lots (mainly housing) in the first quarter of 2014 – just three shy of all the lots approved in 2013.

Mayor Mark Jamieson said Council’s Development Indicators Quarterly Report shows the region has built on the strong performance in the previous quarter.

“This is a great vote of confidence in the region; more investment, more jobs and another step towards council’s vision for a sustainable economy,” Mayor Jamieson said.

“The new lots include the release of new stages at “Pelican Waters“, “The Ridges” at Peregian Springs and “Creekwood Stage 9A” at Meridan Plains.

“This result is particularly encouraging when compared to 2013 when a total of 531 housing lots were released in the full calendar year.

“There was also a nine per cent increase in the number of development applications lodged with council compared to the same quarter in 2013 – 2262 in three months.

“The quarter also saw 1147 building applications approved with an estimated value of construction of $230 million.

“This is a 10% growth in application numbers, and a 30% growth in construction value, when compared to the same quarter in 2013.”

“The Build and Benefit Scheme which Council launched to unlock previous approvals has now seen 32 applications progress since July 2013

“In that same time six developments worth millions of dollars have been completed with the help of the scheme.

“It’s not just the fact that there are more approvals this quarter, there’s also a significant improvement in how quickly and effectively applications are being processed.”

  • 96% of Material Change of Use, Reconfiguring a Lot and Operational works applications were decided within the regulatory timeframe of 40 days. An overwhelming majority of those (83%) were decided within 20 days.
  • The introduction of the new “Fast Track” processing system provides streamlined timelines for low risk applications to 10 business days.  More than a third of relevant applications are now lodged this way.
  • Council’s free application pre-lodgement service continues to be well received by development customers with a record of 30 meeting appointments in February 2014.

For more information visit Sunshine Coast Council