The numbers
| Council | Avg lodgement days | Avg assessment days |
|---|---|---|
| Wollongong | 5 | 103 |
| Kiama | 11 | 84 |
| Shellharbour | 4 | 58 |
What the target actually is
The league table exists because of the Statement of Expectations framework the state introduced to speed up housing approvals. The expectation is a descending ladder, and the department's own page spells it out: councils should determine DAs within whichever is the lesser of their own previous financial year average or an average of 115 days for 2024-25, 105 days for 2025-26, 95 days for 2026-27, and 85 days from 1 July 2027 onward.
So the verdict for the year just ended is less flattering than the headline rung suggests. All three councils came in under the generic 105-day rung, Wollongong by two days. But "the lesser of" does real work here. On the department's own 2024-25 table, the previous-year averages were 73 days for Shellharbour, 105 for Kiama and 99 for Wollongong, so each council's binding line was: Shellharbour 73, Kiama 105, Wollongong 99. Shellharbour (58) and Kiama (84) finished inside their lines. Wollongong, at 103, finished four days outside its own. The new year's generic rung is 95. On last year's numbers Shellharbour and Kiama clear it comfortably and Wollongong does not, which makes the monthly snapshots between now and Christmas worth watching: the ladder was designed to squeeze, and this is the year it starts squeezing here.
What the numbers do not say
A league table invites a lazy reading: fastest council best, slowest council worst. Three cautions before anyone writes that sentence.
- Volume differs by a factor of five. Figures we read on the department's interactive dashboard the same day put applications assessed this year at roughly 840 for Wollongong, 621 for Shellharbour and 158 for Kiama. Wollongong assesses more DAs than the other two combined, including the region's most complex urban applications.
- Complexity differs. A high-rise mixed-use application in Wollongong's city centre and a dwelling alteration in Jamberoo both count as one DA. The average blends them.
- Lodgement days are a separate clock. Kiama's 11-day average lodgement time (against 4 and 5 for its neighbours) measures the front gate, the time from submission to formal acceptance, and is the number most in a resident's own control to experience.
Why we will keep publishing this
The department updates the league table monthly, on the sixth business day. That makes this one of the few accountability measures in local government that renews itself on a fixed clock, with no announcement to wait for. We will read it each month and report movement, in either direction, with the same cautions attached.