The greenfield due diligence checklist for NSW
Every check before you buy rural land to rezone in NSW, in the order a developer does them, from free map checks to studies, with costs and times.
Greenfield due diligence in NSW happens in three stages. First the free and cheap checks you do before you make an offer: the council's plans for the area, the title, the maps, heritage, mining and services. Then the studies you pay for before you commit, like ecology, flood, bushfire and soil. Then the bigger studies for the planning proposal itself.
Most checklists online are written for building on land that's already zoned. Rural land on the edge of town needs different questions. Can this land be rezoned? How much of it can be built on? And what's it worth if the rezoning never happens? This checklist follows the order a developer would actually do it, and it's the same order our report uses.
The costs and times below are the starting ranges in our report for a made-up 38.8 hectare sample site, Ridgeback Creek (demo). They are not market prices. Get quotes from consultants for your own site, because size, access and what they find all change the price.
What should you check before making an offer?
These checks cost little or nothing and can rule a site out in a day. Do every one of them before you sign anything.
Is the site in the council's plans for new housing?
This is the big one. Ring the council's strategic planning team and ask where the site sits in its local housing strategy and local strategic planning statement, and in the regional plan. Under the LEP Making Guideline (July 2026), a planning proposal has to show strategic merit. In plain words, it has to fit the state and regional plans or the council's own strategy, or show that something has changed that those plans haven't caught up with. Land that sits outside every growth area has a much harder road. Our guide to buying rural land with rezoning potential goes into the odds.
What does the title say?
Order a title search and a copy of the plan. It shows who owns the land, any mortgages, and the easements and covenants that can take land or limit what you do. A power line or pipeline easement across the middle of a site can cut the lot count badly.
What do the planning maps show?
Look the lot up in the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer. Check the zoning, the minimum lot size, the flood planning area, bush fire prone land, and the Biodiversity Values Map. Ask council for a planning certificate too. It lists the zoning and some of the hazards council knows about.
A missing flood map doesn't mean the land doesn't flood. Lots of rural land has never been flood mapped. Look at the contours, the creeks and old aerial photos.
Are there Aboriginal heritage sites recorded nearby?
Run a basic search of AHIMS, the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System run by Heritage NSW. You can search by lot and DP. If it shows recorded sites, a more detailed search and assessment will follow. If it shows nothing, that only means nothing has been recorded. It doesn't mean nothing is there.
Is there anything nearby that needs a buffer?
Look around the site for a sewage treatment plant, a poultry farm, a quarry, heavy industry, an airport or a piggery. These can need buffers for smell, noise or dust, and the buffers often aren't on any public map. One of our accuracy tests, a site at Cessnock, came out 67% too high because a sewage plant's odour buffer covers much of it. Drive past. Look at aerial photos. Ask council.
Is there a mining title over the land?
Check MinView, the NSW Government's online map of mining and exploration titles. If there is one, find out who holds it and what it covers before you go further, because it can complicate a rezoning.
Can you get water, sewer and power?
Ask the water provider (Sydney Water, Hunter Water, or the council in most regional areas) and the electricity network about capacity. If the nearest sewer main is full or kilometres away, someone has to pay for the pipes and pumps to bring it in. That cost, called lead-in servicing, can run into millions. Our sample site assumes $4.5 million.
Does the price make sense?
Do a first count of the land you can build on and the lots it could hold. Then work out what the land might be worth once rezoned, bring it back to today, and weigh it by the chance of rezoning. On the sample site the land supports about $10.4 million today, against a $9 million asking price, but only if the chance of rezoning is about 33% or better. Our guides on how many lots you can subdivide and how englobo land is valued show both sums.
Which studies do you need before you commit?
Once a site passes the first round, the next step is to find out what the maps can't tell you. Most buyers do this during a due diligence period or an option, so they can walk away if the studies go badly. These studies decide how much of the site can really be built on. Our report starts with a budget of $109,000 to $275,000 for this stage on the sample site.
| Study | What it tells you | Our report starts with |
|---|---|---|
| Biodiversity Development Assessment Report (BDAR) | What plants and animals are on the site, which land needs protecting, and what offsets would cost if you clear | $35k to $90k, about 26 weeks because some surveys only work in certain seasons |
| Flood impact assessment | Where floodwater goes, how high it gets, and whether filling land would push water onto neighbours | $25k to $70k, about 14 weeks |
| Geotechnical investigation | Soil, rock, salinity and slope stability, which drive civil costs | $20k to $45k |
| Detailed survey | Exact levels, boundaries, creek banks and trees | $15k to $35k |
| Bushfire assessment | Bushfire risk and the asset protection zones the subdivision will need | $8k to $20k |
| Preliminary contamination investigation | Whether past uses like sheep dips, fuel tanks or fill have left contamination | $6k to $15k |
Start the biodiversity work first. It takes longest, and if you miss a survey season you wait a year. A site gets into the state's offsets scheme if the clearing is on Biodiversity Values Map land or goes over an area threshold that depends on the minimum lot size, and then a BDAR is needed. Our guide to the Biodiversity Values Map explains how that works.
Most new housing subdivisions on bush fire prone land also need a bush fire safety authority from the NSW Rural Fire Service under section 100B of the Rural Fires Act 1997. Since 1 July 2026, for these applications the new Development Coordination Authority sets the general terms of approval and the RFS issues the safety authority after consent. The bushfire study you buy now is the start of that.
What else does the planning proposal need?
If the studies stack up, the next step is the planning proposal itself. This is the formal request to change the LEP so the land can be used for housing. The LEP Making Guideline lists the studies a proposal may need, depending on what the site has. For a greenfield site, our report starts with $129,000 to $322,000 for this stage.
| Study | Our report starts with |
|---|---|
| Planning proposal report and urban design report | $40k to $90k |
| Detailed contamination investigation | $30k to $80k |
| Stormwater strategy | $15k to $40k |
| Servicing strategy (water, sewer, power, telecommunications) | $15k to $40k |
| Riparian assessment | $12k to $30k |
| Traffic study | $12k to $30k |
| Aboriginal cultural heritage due diligence | $5k to $12k |
The guideline says a water cycle and stormwater strategy may be needed for greenfield sites and for sites next to creek corridors, and a strategic bush fire study where bushfire affects the site. Council may ask for more, such as a social needs study or an economic assessment, at scoping or Gateway. The riparian assessment works out the creek corridors and feeds into the controlled activity approval you'll need later for works near the creek. Our guide to riparian corridors covers that.
All up, the studies for the sample site come to $238,000 to $597,000 across the three stages. That's before council's fees, the time it takes and the interest on the land while you wait. Our guide to the planning proposal process covers each step.
What should you do with the results?
Go back to the lot count and the price after each stage. Every study either takes land off the site, adds a cost, or makes rezoning more or less likely. If the numbers stop working, walking away after spending $20,000 is a lot better than walking away after spending $500,000 and the price of the land.
A few things to settle in the contract before you start paying for studies:
- A due diligence period or option long enough to finish the ecology surveys.
- Access to the land for surveyors and consultants.
- The right to talk to council and lodge a planning proposal as the landowner's representative, if you're buying on option.
- What happens to the studies if the deal falls over.
Get a property lawyer to set these terms. They vary a lot from deal to deal.
Can someone do the first stage for you?
Yes. Pulling the planning layers for one lot, adding up what each constraint takes, counting lots and running the value sum is a lot of careful work, and it's easy to count land twice. Our report does the map work and the sums from the government's own data, then lists what's still left for you to check, in this same order. You can see how a report starts in the sample report.
Sources: Local Environmental Plan Making Guideline (NSW DPHI, July 2026), including the Planning Proposal Framework and the Standard Study Requirements; Biodiversity Values Map and Threshold Tool (NSW Environment and Heritage, updated 12 January 2026); Bush Fire Safety Authority for Integrated Development guidance (NSW RFS, 3 August 2026); Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019 (NSW RFS); AHIMS Web Services (Heritage NSW); NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer; Controlled activity approvals (NSW DCCEEW Water).
Get the first stage done properly
Give us the lot numbers and get the maps, the lot count, the value against the asking price and the checks still to do. We're opening soon.
It does the upfront mapping and measuring a planner would start with. You'll likely still want a consultant on a site you go ahead with, but you'll know which sites are worth it first.
Register your interest and be first to try it when it opens. We'll only use your details to tell you about it, and you can ask us to remove them at any time.
Not ready yet? Try the free lot yield calculator on your own numbers first.
General information only. It isn't planning, legal or financial advice. Check the rules for your own site with the council and the right specialists.
Keep reading
How many lots can I subdivide my land into?Why site area divided by minimum lot size gives the wrong answer, and how to count lots properly, worked through on a 38.8 ha sample site.
Buying rural land with rezoning potential in NSW: honest oddsHow long rezoning rural land in NSW takes, what it costs, what stops it, and what the land is worth if it's refused, worked through on a sample site.
The planning proposal process in NSW, step by stepEach stage of rezoning in NSW from the July 2026 LEP Making Guideline: who decides, what you lodge, the target times and what the 2025 reforms changed.