See what a site actually allows.
Nobody buys a block on a hunch. Plenty of people buy one on a second-hand answer from whoever is selling it. Put an Australian address into Properties and you'll read it yourself, off live state planning services: the zone and its name, what the council allows on the site, the overlays sitting over it, and the likely approval pathway, in plain words. This is site intelligence, for buyers, builders and agents. It isn't planning advice, and it's never a valuation.
Where the controls are mapped you get the envelope too: maximum height, maximum storeys, front, side and rear setbacks, maximum site coverage, minimum garden area and car parking. Path Advisor names the likely route, complying development, a development application, or exempt, and what would push it to a full DA. Need it in writing before you spend anything on the block? That is what a Preliminary Planning Investigation is for.
If we can't match the address to a property, Properties shows you nothing. No zone, no default standing in for one. If it matches but your council's own controls aren't mapped, the figures are the state scheme's default and they are labelled as that rather than as your council's schedule, and any overlay layer we didn't read is listed as Not checked. Not checked is not an all-clear. It means somebody still has to go and look.
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What Properties returns for an address
Zone and zone name first, because until you know which instrument you are under nothing else on the page means much. Then what the council allows on it, the overlays, the likely pathway, and the envelope wherever the controls are mapped.
Zone and zone name
First on the page, so you know which instrument you are reading under.
What the council allows
Written as uses, so you can read it in one pass and hand it to a client.
The overlays on this site
The mapped constraints that decide what is realistic. Any layer we didn't read is listed as Not checked.
The likely approval pathway
The route a proposal would most probably take, rather than a decision anyone has made.
The envelope, where controls are mapped
Height, storeys, setbacks, site coverage, garden area and parking, sitting under those four.
Read live, state by state
The read works in seven states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. They don't all read to the same depth. New South Wales goes deepest, because it's the only state where we pull the mapped overlays for you. Queensland runs on the councils' own rules, so what you see is your council rather than the state default. The Northern Territory is not live.
Thin data gets a label, never a fill-in. Where the council's own controls aren't mapped, what comes back is the state scheme's default and it says so on the screen, rather than posing as the council's schedule. An overlay layer we didn't read is listed as Not checked. That is a job left on your list, not a clearance.
Where the read stops, and who decides
Properties reads a site's published planning position and puts it in plain words. That is the whole of the job. There is no price estimate and no return figure anywhere on the platform, and there won't be one on this page. Your planner, your consultant and the council stay the authority on what actually gets approved on the site, and Properties is the thing you take into that conversation.
Reading an address, answered
What does Properties return for an address?
The zone and zone name, what the council allows on the site, the overlays we read and the likely approval pathway, in plain words. Where the controls are mapped you get the envelope as well: maximum height, maximum storeys, setbacks, maximum site coverage, minimum garden area and car parking, with Path Advisor naming the likely route.
Does every state read the same way?
No. Seven states are live, and the depth differs. New South Wales is the only one where we pull the mapped overlays for you. Queensland runs on the councils' own rules, so the figures are your council's. Anywhere else, a figure taken from the state scheme's default says so. The Northern Territory is not live.
What happens when the data is thin?
You get told. An address we can't match to a property returns nothing, and no zone gets assumed for it. Where your council's own controls aren't mapped, the figures are the state scheme's default and labelled as that. An overlay layer we didn't read is listed as Not checked rather than passed off as clear.
Is this planning advice or a valuation?
Neither. Properties reads a site's published planning position and puts it in plain words. There is no price estimate, no return figure, and no approval is promised to anybody. Your planner, your consultant and the council stay the authority on what actually gets approved on the site.
How current is what I am reading?
It is read the moment you ask, from live state planning services, rather than served out of a stored copy. Planning controls change, and a cached answer ages badly on exactly the question people repeat in writing. What you see is the state's published position on the day you looked.
One block, all the way back to market
Look at any Australian address for free. When it is worth going further, the same site carries into a written read, a planning pack you lodge yourself on the NSW Planning Portal, and the contractors you invite. Years later, when it goes back on the market, the record of what got built is already sitting on the job.
Urban Pulse is an Australian construction platform: site intelligence, town planning, contractor marketplace, Send & Sign, and project management in one workspace.
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