See how much a town planner would charge for your Statement of Environmental Effects — and how much you could save with instantSEE.
Pick the option that best describes your project.
Town planners in NSW typically charge $800 to $2,500 to prepare a Statement of Environmental Effects for a residential DA. The price depends on your project type, site complexity, and location. A straightforward single-storey alteration on a standard lot sits at the lower end. A complex dual occupancy with multiple constraints in metro Sydney sits at the upper end. The calculator above estimates your cost based on your answers.
If a planner manages your entire DA — not just the SEE — expect to pay $2,000 to $5,000 or more. That includes coordinating plans, specialist reports, and council correspondence. Most homeowners only need the SEE written, which is the narrower and cheaper service.
Prepare your plans and BASIX certificate yourself (the portal does BASIX for you). Gather your site information — zoning, constraints, and a 10.7 planning certificate — before engaging a planner, so you are not paying for research you can do yourself. Get two to three quotes and confirm what each includes: site inspection, revision rounds, and whether the quote is GST-inclusive.
For a straightforward residential DA, you can generate a complete, DA-ready SEE in 5 minutes instead of paying a planner $800 to $2,500. The report covers the same section 4.15 matters a planner would address and is tailored to your council. If your council rejects the DA because of the SEE, we refund or rebuild it.
| Development Type | Indicative SEE Cost | Typical Complexity |
|---|---|---|
| Alterations and additions | $800-$1,200 | Low |
| Secondary dwelling (granny flat) | $1,000-$1,500 | Low-Moderate |
| Dual occupancy | $1,200-$1,700 | Moderate |
| New dwelling (two-storey) | $1,500-$2,500 | Moderate-High |
These figures fall within the standard NSW town planner range of $800 to $2,500 for a residential SEE. What drives the cost is not page count but the number of controls the planner must research, the site constraints, and whether the proposal seeks to vary any standard. A straightforward addition on an unconstrained lot is the simplest job. A new dwelling on a flood-affected, heritage-adjacent site with a clause 4.6 variation is the hardest.
Three factors drive the price: your development type (a granny flat is simpler than a dual occupancy), your site constraints (a standard lot costs less than a flood-prone or heritage site), and your location (metro Sydney planners charge more than regional).
A standard SEE fee usually includes reading your plans, researching your council's controls, writing the SEE, and one or two revision rounds. Confirm whether a site inspection, council liaison, or responding to an RFI is included or charged separately.
Yes. There is no legal requirement to use a town planner to lodge a DA in NSW. You can prepare the documents yourself and lodge through the NSW Planning Portal. The main task you take on is the SEE, which is where most self-lodgers use a guided tool or a template rather than writing from scratch.
For a simple, compliant project on an unconstrained lot, a planner is often not necessary — the $800 to $2,500 saving is real. For a constrained site (heritage, flood, bushfire, clause 4.6 variation) or a project likely to draw neighbour objections, a planner's judgement usually earns its fee.