South Australia’s planning system has again been judged the best in the nation, this time ranked number one in the inaugural Housing Industry Association Planning Blueprint Scorecard.

The report praised South Australia’s single, statewide planning system and endorsed the state government’s planning initiatives from the Housing Roadmap.

“Industry is encouraged by the recent release of the Governments’ Housing Roadmap that included bold new planning reforms that could see houses built on development sites up to 18 months faster.”
- HIA Planning Blueprint Scorecard

Changes to the code amendment process and resulting land division will significantly streamline the process to turn greenfield sites in housing.

The revised timeframe to turn an empty block of land into a housing development is now expected to be just 36-63 months, compared with 54-75 months under the old system.

This encompasses the code amendment process, plus development assessment, land division, engineering approval, civil works and dwelling construction.

A standardised template will be established for code amendments which will remove unnecessary details to initiate the rezoning of land.

The creation of a code amendment dashboard will also enable private proponents to track the progress of their rezoning application.

This latest accolade follows similar recent results, with SA’s planning system ranked number one in the Retirement Living Council’s National Planning Report Card and by the Business Council of Australia.