Planning guide

How subdivision approval works in Australia

Splitting a block is not one approval. It is three separate gates, held by different bodies, called different things in every state. Here is the sequence, and what each step is named where you are.

Written and verified by Struqt’s registered architects · Last verified September 2026

Isometric illustration of a suburban block divided by a dashed line into two lots, with an orange path running through three teal gateways of decreasing openness towards a small stack of title documents.

Subdividing land is not one approval. In every Australian state and territory it is three separate gates, and clearing one tells you nothing about the next. First a planning approval decides whether the split is allowed at all. Then a compliance stage checks that the conditions attached to that approval have actually been met, and produces a certificate or a seal. Only then does a land titles office register the plan, which is the act that brings the new lots into existence. What each gate is called changes at every border, and so does who holds it.

Sources: Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) and Subdivision Act 1988 (Vic) · Planning and Development Act 2005 (WA), Part 10 · Planning Act 2016 (Qld) · Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 (Tas), Part 3 · Planning Act 1999 (NT) · Planning Act 2023 (ACT)

The three gates, in order

Gate 1: the planning approval A decision that the split is permissible. This is a planning permit, a development consent, a development approval or a development permit depending on where you are, and it is the gate that can be refused outright on planning grounds. Nothing later in the process revisits that question.
Gate 2: the compliance stage Proof that the conditions on the approval have been satisfied, which usually means the required works are finished and the survey plan is correct. This gate produces a document: a certificate, a statement of compliance, or a council seal on the plan. It is an administrative check against an approval you already hold, not a second planning decision.
Gate 3: registration A land titles office records the plan. This is the act that actually creates the new lots and their titles. Until it happens you own one parcel, however many approvals you are holding.

Whether the split is worth doing at all is a separate question again, and it comes before all three. The feasibility method runs the planning gates before the money, and who sets the minimum lot size and frontage covers whether your block clears the thresholds in the first place.

What it is called where you are

The same act of splitting a block has a different statutory name in almost every jurisdiction, and searching for the wrong one is the fastest way to end up reading a rule that does not apply to you. In Queensland it is not subdivision at all, it is reconfiguring a lot. In South Australia the word subdivision has no separate definition in the Act; the process is a land division, which is one species of development.

New South Wales

What it is called: Subdivision, approved by development consent, then a subdivision certificate at the end
Who decides: The council of the area, for any subdivision that an environmental planning instrument has not made State significant or regionally significant, and has not handed to another public authority. The council is the consent authority, but where a local planning panel has been constituted the councillors cannot decide it at all: the panel, or council staff under delegation, decides on the council's behalf. A simple subdivision may instead run as complying development, where either a council or a private registered certifier issues the certificate.
What creates the titles: The plan of subdivision is registered under Part 23 of the Conveyancing Act 1919, and cannot be registered unless it carries a subdivision certificate. That certificate is a separate decision from the consent, and a different document again from a subdivision works certificate obtained before works start.

Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW), Parts 4 and 6. EP&A Act 1979 s 4.5(d), s 4.8(2), s 6.2, s 6.15; cf s 4.27(4), s 4.28(1) on complying development for subdivision (version current for 1 September 2026); Conveyancing Act 1919 s 195C(1)(e)

Victoria

What it is called: A plan of subdivision, certified and then registered
Who decides: The council certifies the plan, and a planning scheme may require a planning permit for the subdivision as well. The Act lets a planning scheme regulate or prohibit the use or development of land, and development is defined to include the subdivision of land.
What creates the titles: The Registrar decides separately whether to register the certified plan. Registration takes effect when the Registrar records it, and the Registrar then creates a folio of the Register for each lot, which is what brings the new titles into being.

Subdivision Act 1988 (Vic), with the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic). Subdivision Act 1988 s 22(1), s 24 (Authorised Version 084, as at 1 July 2026); Planning and Environment Act 1987 s 6(1)(b), (2)(b) (Version 167, 3 August 2026)

Queensland

What it is called: Reconfiguring a lot
Who decides: The state defines the term and the categories of development. Whether a particular reconfiguration needs approval, and on what terms, is set by a categorising instrument, which in practice means your council's planning scheme.
What creates the titles: We did not source the plan-sealing and registration provisions, which sit outside the Planning Act in the titles and survey legislation.

Planning Act 2016 (Qld). Planning Act 2016 (Qld) Schedule 2, definition of reconfiguring a lot

Western Australia

What it is called: Subdivision, approved by the Commission before anything else happens
Who decides: The Western Australian Planning Commission, a single state body. This is the sharpest difference in the country: no person may subdivide a lot, amalgamate lots, or lay out a road without the Commission's approval, and doing so is an offence. Crown land and mining tenements are carved out, and strata schemes run through separate provisions.
What creates the titles: The Registrar of Titles cannot create a title for the subdivided land until the plan of survey has been endorsed with the Commission's approval.

Planning and Development Act 2005 (WA), Part 10. Planning and Development Act 2005 (WA) s 135(1) to (2), s 146(1)

South Australia

What it is called: Land division. There is no separately defined term subdivision in the Act
Who decides: Not verifiedWe have now read the Act and its regulations, and we still will not name one body, because the Act does not. A land division is split across separate consents that different authorities grant, and which authority assesses any particular application is set by the Planning and Design Code, a separate instrument we have not read. We would rather leave this open than print a single answer the law does not support. What we did verify is the terminology: dividing land is a species of development, achieved through the division of an allotment, and that definition covers division, subdivision, resubdivision and the alteration of allotment boundaries, including by community plan or strata plan.
What creates the titles: A land division certificate from the State Planning Commission is required for a development that involves dividing land, subject to exclusions set out in the regulations. We have not yet sourced the registration step that follows it, because that sits in the Real Property Act 1886 rather than in this Act.

Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (SA). PDI Act 2016 s 3(1), definitions of development and of division of an allotment; s 138(1); PDI (General) Regulations 2017 reg 86 (Act version 30.7.2026, Regulations version 13.8.2026)

Tasmania

What it is called: Subdivision, by permit and then by a sealed final plan
Who decides: The council, twice over. An owner must not subdivide except under a plan approved by the granting of a permit, and the same council then checks the final plan and affixes its seal. It has 20 business days to decide whether the final plan complies.
What creates the titles: The council lodges the sealed plan with the Recorder of Titles. The plan only takes effect once the Recorder signs and dates an acceptance memorandum, and the Recorder then creates the folios of the Register, which are the new titles, within 21 days.

Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993 (Tas) and the Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 (Tas), Part 3. Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 (Tas) s 81(1), s 87 to s 89, s 94(1) to (2)

Northern Territory

What it is called: Subdivision, as one form of development requiring consent
Who decides: The Territory, not a general-purpose council. Where a Division of the Development Consent Authority is established for the land, that Division decides. Where one is not, the Minister does. A council may nominate community members to a Division but is never itself the consent authority.
What creates the titles: A certificate of compliance certifies that the permit's conditions have been met. It is also referred to as a part 5 clearance, so the same document appears under two names.

Planning Act 1999 (NT). Planning Act 1999 (NT) s 4(1) to (2), s 63(1) to (2), s 65 (as in force 10 February 2026)

ACT

What it is called: A subdivision development proposal, lodged as a subdivision design application
Who decides: The territory planning authority. A subdivision design application must include a detailed plan consistent with the territory plan and identify the boundaries of the subdivision and the individual blocks.
What creates the titles: A proposal limited to changing a block boundary, or to subdividing under the Unit Titles Act 2001, is expressly excluded from that pathway. It still needs development approval, because subdividing land is development in its own right.

Planning Act 2023 (ACT). Planning Act 2023 (ACT) s 43(1), s 43(3), s 14(1)(e) (Republication R11, 22 May 2026)

What subdivision is called, who decides it, and what creates the new titles, in each Australian state and territory
Where	What it is called	Who decides	What creates the titles
New South WalesEnvironmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW), Parts 4 and 6EP&A Act 1979 s 4.5(d), s 4.8(2), s 6.2, s 6.15; cf s 4.27(4), s 4.28(1) on complying development for subdivision (version current for 1 September 2026); Conveyancing Act 1919 s 195C(1)(e)	Subdivision, approved by development consent, then a subdivision certificate at the end	The council of the area, for any subdivision that an environmental planning instrument has not made State significant or regionally significant, and has not handed to another public authority. The council is the consent authority, but where a local planning panel has been constituted the councillors cannot decide it at all: the panel, or council staff under delegation, decides on the council's behalf. A simple subdivision may instead run as complying development, where either a council or a private registered certifier issues the certificate.	The plan of subdivision is registered under Part 23 of the Conveyancing Act 1919, and cannot be registered unless it carries a subdivision certificate. That certificate is a separate decision from the consent, and a different document again from a subdivision works certificate obtained before works start.
VictoriaSubdivision Act 1988 (Vic), with the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic)Subdivision Act 1988 s 22(1), s 24 (Authorised Version 084, as at 1 July 2026); Planning and Environment Act 1987 s 6(1)(b), (2)(b) (Version 167, 3 August 2026)	A plan of subdivision, certified and then registered	The council certifies the plan, and a planning scheme may require a planning permit for the subdivision as well. The Act lets a planning scheme regulate or prohibit the use or development of land, and development is defined to include the subdivision of land.	The Registrar decides separately whether to register the certified plan. Registration takes effect when the Registrar records it, and the Registrar then creates a folio of the Register for each lot, which is what brings the new titles into being.
QueenslandPlanning Act 2016 (Qld)Planning Act 2016 (Qld) Schedule 2, definition of reconfiguring a lot	Reconfiguring a lot	The state defines the term and the categories of development. Whether a particular reconfiguration needs approval, and on what terms, is set by a categorising instrument, which in practice means your council's planning scheme.	We did not source the plan-sealing and registration provisions, which sit outside the Planning Act in the titles and survey legislation.
Western AustraliaPlanning and Development Act 2005 (WA), Part 10Planning and Development Act 2005 (WA) s 135(1) to (2), s 146(1)	Subdivision, approved by the Commission before anything else happens	The Western Australian Planning Commission, a single state body. This is the sharpest difference in the country: no person may subdivide a lot, amalgamate lots, or lay out a road without the Commission's approval, and doing so is an offence. Crown land and mining tenements are carved out, and strata schemes run through separate provisions.	The Registrar of Titles cannot create a title for the subdivided land until the plan of survey has been endorsed with the Commission's approval.
South AustraliaPlanning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (SA)PDI Act 2016 s 3(1), definitions of development and of division of an allotment; s 138(1); PDI (General) Regulations 2017 reg 86 (Act version 30.7.2026, Regulations version 13.8.2026)	Land division. There is no separately defined term subdivision in the Act	Not verifiedWe have now read the Act and its regulations, and we still will not name one body, because the Act does not. A land division is split across separate consents that different authorities grant, and which authority assesses any particular application is set by the Planning and Design Code, a separate instrument we have not read. We would rather leave this open than print a single answer the law does not support. What we did verify is the terminology: dividing land is a species of development, achieved through the division of an allotment, and that definition covers division, subdivision, resubdivision and the alteration of allotment boundaries, including by community plan or strata plan.	A land division certificate from the State Planning Commission is required for a development that involves dividing land, subject to exclusions set out in the regulations. We have not yet sourced the registration step that follows it, because that sits in the Real Property Act 1886 rather than in this Act.
TasmaniaLand Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993 (Tas) and the Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 (Tas), Part 3Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 (Tas) s 81(1), s 87 to s 89, s 94(1) to (2)	Subdivision, by permit and then by a sealed final plan	The council, twice over. An owner must not subdivide except under a plan approved by the granting of a permit, and the same council then checks the final plan and affixes its seal. It has 20 business days to decide whether the final plan complies.	The council lodges the sealed plan with the Recorder of Titles. The plan only takes effect once the Recorder signs and dates an acceptance memorandum, and the Recorder then creates the folios of the Register, which are the new titles, within 21 days.
Northern TerritoryPlanning Act 1999 (NT)Planning Act 1999 (NT) s 4(1) to (2), s 63(1) to (2), s 65 (as in force 10 February 2026)	Subdivision, as one form of development requiring consent	The Territory, not a general-purpose council. Where a Division of the Development Consent Authority is established for the land, that Division decides. Where one is not, the Minister does. A council may nominate community members to a Division but is never itself the consent authority.	A certificate of compliance certifies that the permit's conditions have been met. It is also referred to as a part 5 clearance, so the same document appears under two names.
ACTPlanning Act 2023 (ACT)Planning Act 2023 (ACT) s 43(1), s 43(3), s 14(1)(e) (Republication R11, 22 May 2026)	A subdivision development proposal, lodged as a subdivision design application	The territory planning authority. A subdivision design application must include a detailed plan consistent with the territory plan and identify the boundaries of the subdivision and the individual blocks.	A proposal limited to changing a block boundary, or to subdividing under the Unit Titles Act 2001, is expressly excluded from that pathway. It still needs development approval, because subdividing land is development in its own right.

The step people forget: registration is what creates the lots

The gate people are most surprised by is the last one. An approval does not create a lot. Registration does, and it is done by a land titles office rather than by the body that granted the approval.

Victoria states the mechanism unusually plainly: registration takes effect when the Registrar records that the plan has been registered, and on registration reserves and roads vest, easements and restrictions are created, varied or removed, and the Registrar creates a folio of the Register for each lot. The Registrar there is the Registrar of Titles under the Transfer of Land Act 1958.

Tasmania puts a clock on it. Once the council has sealed the final plan and lodged it, the plan takes effect when the Recorder of Titles signs and dates an acceptance memorandum, and the Recorder then has 21 days to create the folios. Western Australia runs the dependency the other way and says the Registrar of Titles cannot create a title until the plan of survey carries the Commission's endorsement.

Four things that catch people out

Western Australia does not work like the others, and the difference is criminal. In most of the country the council is somewhere near the centre of the decision. In WA a single state body, the Western Australian Planning Commission, holds the subdivision approval, and subdividing without it is an offence rather than merely ineffective. If you have subdivided elsewhere in Australia, this is the assumption to drop first.
In the Northern Territory a purported subdivision is void. A transaction that purports to subdivide land in contravention of the Act is not merely unapproved. It is void. That is a materially different consequence from an approval you have not obtained yet.
A boundary realignment may not be a subdivision at all. In the ACT a proposal limited to changing a block boundary, or subdividing under the Unit Titles Act 2001, is expressly carved out of the subdivision design application pathway, though it still needs development approval. South Australia goes the other way and folds boundary alteration into the definition of dividing an allotment. Same physical act, opposite classification.
An old consent may run on the old rules. New South Wales moved its subdivision certificate provisions into Part 6 of the Act on 1 December 2019. A development consent granted before that date continues under the former building and subdivision provisions. If you are working from a consent that has been sitting for years, the current process may not be the one that governs it.

What we could not verify

One cell in the table above says we could not verify something, and it stays that way until we can. We have now read the South Australian Act and its regulations, and the honest answer is that no single body decides. A land division there is split across separate consents that different authorities grant, and which authority assesses any particular application is set by the Planning and Design Code, a separate instrument we have not read yet. Naming one decision-maker would be tidier than the law actually is. Separately, a Bill before the Tasmanian Parliament in 2026 amends the definition of subdivision, and the state has announced a program to move subdivision approvals into the Tasmanian Planning Scheme, so the Tasmanian pathway is the one most likely to change next.

Our editorial standards explain why a gap is published as a gap. The easement entry covers one of the rights that registration can create or remove.

Key takeaway: Find out which of the three gates you are actually at before you ask anyone a question about it. Most confusion about subdividing comes from asking a registration question of a planning authority, or a planning question of a titles office, and getting a correct answer to a different question.

Frequently asked questions

Who approves a subdivision in Australia?

It depends on the state, and in one case it is not a council at all. In Western Australia the Western Australian Planning Commission, a single state body, must approve any subdivision, and proceeding without that approval is an offence. In the Northern Territory the consent authority is a Division of the Development Consent Authority, or the Minister where no Division is established. In Tasmania it is the council, both for the permit and for sealing the final plan. In Victoria the council certifies the plan and the Registrar separately registers it.

What is subdivision called in Queensland?

Reconfiguring a lot. The Planning Act 2016 defines it to mean creating lots by subdividing another lot, amalgamating lots, rearranging boundaries by registering a plan of subdivision, dividing land by certain agreements, and creating an easement giving road access to a lot. Searching Queensland material for subdivision will miss most of what governs you.

Does approval to subdivide create the new titles?

No. Approval decides that the split is permissible. A separate compliance stage confirms the conditions have been met, and a land titles office then registers the plan. Registration is the act that creates the new lots and their titles. Until the plan is registered you still own one parcel.

Is a boundary realignment a subdivision?

It depends where you are. In South Australia altering the boundaries of an allotment falls inside the definition of dividing an allotment. In the ACT a proposal limited to changing a block boundary is expressly excluded from the subdivision design application pathway, though it still requires development approval because subdividing land is development.

How long does subdivision approval take?

There is no national answer, and most of the published ones generalise one council's experience. Two statutory clocks we did verify: in Tasmania a council has 20 business days to decide whether a final plan complies, and once a plan takes effect the Recorder of Titles has 21 days to create the new folios. Those cover parts of the compliance and registration gates only, not the planning decision.

Related guides

Start with whether your block can be split

The three gates only matter once the planning controls allow a split at all. A Struqt report resolves the zone, the overlays and the controls for any Australian address, and says plainly when a figure is your council's rather than your state's.

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