Understand your block. Then choose your builder.
See what your block allows in Properties, get the Planning pack you lodge yourself, invite builders in Marketplace, follow it in Project Management.
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Building once in your life means taking someone's word for most of it. This gives you your own copy. Put your address in and you'll see what your block is zoned for, what the council will allow on it, and the overlays that quietly decide what's realistic, in words rather than clause numbers. When the paperwork starts, the pack comes together here and you lodge it yourself on the NSW Planning Portal. Nobody here lodges it for you and nobody can promise you an approval. You invite builders to quote, their licence and insurance sit next to the price, and once the job runs you can watch it happen instead of ringing to ask.
Urban Pulse is an Australian construction platform: site intelligence, town planning, contractor marketplace, Send & Sign, and project management in one workspace.
Understand your own block
You shouldn't have to take anyone's word for what you're allowed to do with your own land. Put your address in and you get the zone and its name, what the council allows on the site, the overlays sitting over it and the likely approval path, written the way a planner would explain it to a mate.
If your address doesn't match a property we hold, you get nothing at all: no zone, and no default dropped in to fill the gap. If it matches but your council's own controls aren't mapped, the figures come from the state scheme's default and say so on screen instead of pretending to be your council's schedule. Any overlay layer we didn't read is listed as Not checked, which means nobody has looked yet, not that your block is clear.
Where the controls are mapped you also get the envelope for your block: maximum height, maximum storeys, front, side and rear setbacks, maximum site coverage, minimum garden area, car parking. Path Advisor tells you the likely route, complying development, a development application, or exempt, and what would tip your plans into a full DA. A Preliminary Planning Investigation is where that becomes a written read of your site.
Get the development application together
Planning assembles your development application pack out of what you and your consultants supply and hands it to you as a ready-to-lodge PDF. You lodge it yourself on the NSW Planning Portal, then mark it as lodged here so you can see where it sits.
Urban Pulse doesn't lodge on your behalf and can't promise the council will approve it. What it removes is the part where you're chasing five people for the current version of a drawing.
Choose a builder on more than a handshake
Marketplace is invitation only, so nobody you didn't ask is going to ring you. You invite the builders and trades you want, they quote, and you read the numbers side by side.
Each profile records licence, insurance and ABN, so they sit next to the price rather than turning up later. Urban Pulse records those details, it doesn't check them against a register, and you should make your own checks with the relevant authority before you sign anything. Free covers a stub profile and three quotes a month.
Follow the job while it runs
Once your builder's awarded, Project Management shows you the job's own record: the programme and the milestones, the daily log, the photos, every variation as it's raised, and the defects. You find out about a variation when it's raised, not when the invoice lands.
When your builder sends a quote, a contract or a variation, you open a private link, read it and sign on the same page. No account to create, no password to remember before you can read what was sent.
From taking their word to knowing
This is the only build most people ever run. Having your own copy of the block, the quotes and the job is the whole point of it.
What your block allows
Put your address in and read the zone, what the council allows on the block, the overlays we read and the likely approval path.
The envelope for your block
Where the controls are mapped: maximum height and storeys, setbacks, site coverage, garden area and car parking.
A pack you lodge yourself
Planning assembles your development application pack as a ready-to-lodge PDF. You lodge it on the NSW Planning Portal.
Builders you invited
Marketplace is invitation only. You invite the builders and trades you want, and nobody else rings you.
Licence and insurance on the profile
Licence, insurance and ABN are recorded so you read them next to the price. Recording is not checking against a register, so check with the authority.
Sign without an account
Open the private link your builder sends, read the document and sign on the same page. Nothing to install.
Your block, your build, in order
Read your block
Type in your address and read the zone, what the council allows, the overlays we read and the likely approval path, without the clause numbers.
Plan the work
A Preliminary Planning Investigation is an indicative written read of your site, to be confirmed with a registered planner.
Get the pack together
Planning assembles the development application pack out of what you and your consultants supply.
Lodge, then invite
You lodge on the NSW Planning Portal. Then you invite the builders you want to quote.
Watch the job
Project Management shows the programme, the daily log, the photos, the variations and the defects as the job runs.
The same renovation, with your own view of it
Taking a builder's word for what the council will allow.
Reading the zone, the overlays we read and the likely path yourself.
Three quotes that are not comparing the same thing.
Invited quotes side by side, with licence, insurance and ABN recorded beside each.
Finding out about a variation when the invoice arrives.
Every variation raised on the job record, with a date on it.
What homeowners ask
What does Urban Pulse tell me about my block?
The zone and its name, what the council allows on it, the overlays sitting over it and the likely approval path, in words rather than clause numbers. Where the controls are mapped you also see the envelope: height, storeys, setbacks, site coverage, garden area and parking, with the state default labelled where that's what it is.
Does Urban Pulse lodge my development application?
No. Planning puts the pack together from what you and your consultants supply and gives it to you as a ready-to-lodge PDF. You lodge it on the NSW Planning Portal and mark it as lodged, so you can see where it sits. Nobody here promises the council will approve it.
How do I know a builder's licence is current?
You check it. Licence, insurance and ABN are recorded on the builder profile so you read them beside the quote, and recording them is not the same as checking them against a register. Make your own checks with the relevant authority before you sign anything with anyone.
Do I need an account to sign the contract my builder sends?
No. You get a private link, open it in your browser, read the document and sign on the same page. There is no account to create and no password to remember before you can read what was sent. Creating an Urban Pulse account afterwards is optional.
Does it work where I live?
In seven states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. How far the read goes differs. New South Wales is the only one where we pull the mapped overlays for your block. In Queensland we hold the council's own rules, so the figures are your council's rather than the state default. The Northern Territory is not live.
People also ask
How do I find out what I am allowed to build on my own block?
Put your address into Urban Pulse and Properties returns the zone and zone name, what the council allows on the block, the overlays over it and the likely approval pathway in plain English, plus the envelope where the controls are mapped: height, storeys, setbacks, site coverage, garden area and parking. It is site information, not planning advice.
Who lodges a development application for a home renovation in New South Wales?
The owner or their agent lodges it on the NSW Planning Portal. Urban Pulse assembles the pack in Planning and hands it over as a ready-to-lodge PDF, then the lodgement is recorded against the job. Urban Pulse does not lodge for homeowners and makes no promise about the council's decision.
Does Urban Pulse check that a builder is licensed?
No. Urban Pulse records a builder's licence, insurance and ABN on their profile so a homeowner can read them next to the quote. Recording a credential is not checking it against a register, and the homeowner is expected to make their own checks with the relevant authority before signing.
Understand your block. Then build on it.
Leave one email address. It creates no account, no organisation and no plan, because nothing is created here, and we'll tell you when you can read your block and invite the builders you want.
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