The ‘currency period’ is basically the lifespan of your approval. You can start your development works once your approval takes effect and should complete your development, including complying with any relevant approval conditions, before the end of the currency period.
When your approval lapses
There are different currency periods for different types of development. A number of other factors can also impact the duration of a currency period, including any conditions imposed by Council, a referral agency or the Court (where the application was part of an appeal).
Generally, the following currency periods apply:
- Six (6) years for a material change of use (MCU) approval
- Four (4) years for a reconfiguring a lot (RAL) approval
- Two (2) years for all other development approvals.
You should check your decision notice and any correspondence from Council, or advice from a consultant (if used), given at the time of decision for a clear understanding of the currency period applicable to your development.
You can also check approvals through Development.i or contact Council's City Planning and Assessment group on (07) 3829 8999 for more information.
If your development is not completed within the currency period, your approval will lapse and you will need to re-lodge your development application, including payment of relevant application fees. In some instances you may be eligible for reduced application fees if you re-lodge your development application within six (6) months of your approval lapsing. You can find more information on this in Council's register of fees.
Applying for an extension
Before a development approval lapses, you can apply to extend the currency period. If you need to seek an extension, it is important to remember that your extension request must be lodged with Council before the date your approval is due to lapse. This ensures your approval remains current until a decision on your extension request is made.
To apply for an extension, complete the Extension to currency period form [PDF, 1.0MB] and submit this to Council with the relevant fee. As part of your extension request, you may also need to:
- provide owners’ consent if the applicant is different to the property owner and their consent was required for the original development application
- refer your request to any referral agency if there was a concurrence agency referral for the original application.
Assessment process
In assessing an extension request, the Planning Act 2016 requires Council to consider any relevant matter, even if that matter was not relevant to assessing the original development application. Council must assess and decide extension requests within 20 business days after receiving the request, although this period can be extended by agreement if necessary. Once a decision has been made, a decision notice about the extension will be issued to the applicant and any relevant referral agencies.
More information
Further details about currency periods can be found in the Planning Act 2016, sections 85 to 88.