From the first conversation to final occupation — ESTATE's four-step process is designed to eliminate surprises, keep projects on track, and ensure every decision is grounded in planning intelligence.
Before any strategy is formed or any document is drafted, we need to understand exactly what you're trying to achieve — and what the planning system has to say about it. This is where most engagements are won or lost. A misunderstood brief or an unexamined site constraint can cost months.
We start every engagement with a structured discovery conversation. We ask questions that uncover your timeline, your budget sensitivity, your risk appetite, and your desired end state. At the same time, we run our own planning analysis of the site — checking the LEP, DCP, environmental constraints, infrastructure levies, and any history of prior applications that might affect the pathway.
With a clear brief and a thorough site analysis in hand, we build the planning strategy. This means determining the most appropriate approval pathway — whether that's a DA, CDC, complying development, or a planning proposal — and identifying the consultant team and documentation required to support it.
For property advisory engagements, this phase is where active site identification occurs. We search against your brief, assess shortlisted properties against planning controls, and identify the sites with the best planning upside before you commit to any purchase decision.
Application lodgement is the beginning of the approval process, not the end. ESTATE manages the council assessment period — responding to requests for information, managing neighbour notification, addressing objections, and keeping the assessment on track through to determination.
Once DA consent is granted, we manage the certification pathway: Construction Certificate, Section 7.11 contributions, and any works-in-kind arrangements. We coordinate the certifier, engineer, and council to ensure conditions of consent are discharged in the correct sequence and on time.
For project management engagements, ESTATE stays engaged through construction — managing contractor coordination, site inspection schedules, programme milestones, and the occupation certificate procurement. The project is not complete until the OC is issued and the client can use what they built.
We also manage post-approval obligations: Section 7.11 and 7.12 levy payments, subdivision certificate applications, and strata plan registration. These steps are easy to overlook and expensive to get wrong — we make sure they happen in the right order and at the right time.
The most expensive mistakes in development happen at the transition between disciplines — when the planner hands off to the builder, or the advisor hands off to the certifier. ESTATE was built to own the whole process, so nothing falls through the gaps.
Obligation-free initial consultations. We'll map the planning pathway for your project, identify the key risks, and give you an honest picture of what it takes to get approved.