Development in Bathurst

NSW

Building approvals, live development applications and major projects across the Bathurst statistical area — covering Bathurst Regional, Oberon and Lithgow.

SA3 10301 Rest of NSW 51,157 residents 5 statistical areas
Approved · FY25 207 dwellings approved
vs 5-yr average 187 average approvals a year
In the queue 110 live applications
Major projects 20 5 already under construction
Data Sources ABSCouncil planning portals ABS to August 2026 · Refreshed ABS QuickStats SA3 10301 How we calculate this

The Pipeline Development Pipeline in Bathurst

1 Proposed 110 applications in assessment Leading · to September 2026 See applications ↓
2 Approved 207 dwellings approved in 2025-26, or 0.33 per 100 existing dwellings a year Official · ABS to August 2026 See approvals ↓
3 Building 20 major projects committed or under construction, 5 of them already on site Forward · completions to 2030+ See projects ↓
4 Delivered 1,058 new addresses verified since the 2021 Census, up 4.2% on the existing base Actual · to August 2026 Where it landed ↓
In the 2025-26 financial year the ABS recorded 207 dwelling approvals across Bathurst. Right now, 110 development applications are before the 3 councils covering the area. AreaSearch tracks 20 major projects here that are committed or under construction, the largest being Sunny Corner Wind Farm at an estimated $1.40bn. On the ground, 1,058 new addresses have been verified since the 2021 Census — growth of 4.2% on the existing address base.

These four figures are deliberately not added together. An application, an approval and a project under construction are often the same building at three points in its life, measured by three different bodies with three different lags. Read them as a sequence, not a total.

Approved Building Approvals in Bathurst

What councils and certifiers have formally permitted — the ABS series, published about four months in arrears.

Approvals are running at 0.33 per 100 existing dwellings a year, below the New South Wales rate of 0.59. Development here remains overwhelmingly detached: houses account for 82% of recent approvals. The mix being approved closely matches what is already standing — 81% houses against 86% of existing homes. The average approved dwelling is valued at $451,000 in construction cost.

Dwelling units approved each financial year. The dashed line is the five-year average of 187.

How intensively is it building?

Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing dwellings.

Bathurst 0.33
New South Wales 0.59
Australia 0.71

What is here, and what is coming

Detached houses as a share of existing homes, against the share of recent approvals.

Existing homes (2021 Census) 86%
Approved, last 5 years 81%
Approved, latest year 82%
Detached houses Apartments, townhouses & other

Approvals mix by year

Share of each year’s approvals.

2023
2024
2025
2026
2025-26
$95.5m
Residential work approved
2025-26
$34.5m
Commercial work approved
construction cost
$451,000
Average value per approved dwelling
last two years
313
Residents per approval

Supply & Demand Is Bathurst Building Enough Homes?

The same approvals, measured against the population they have to house.

Bathurst approves about 3.7 new dwellings a year for every 1,000 residents. Since the 2021 Census it has added 2,011 residents and 1,058 new addresses — about 1.9 extra people per home built, below the 2.7-person average household, so building has run ahead of population growth. Housing the population projected for 2041 implies roughly 269 new dwellings a year from here, which puts the recent approval rate of 187 a year behind what the projection needs.

Growth against supply since the Census

People added for every new address verified, against the size of an average local household.

People added per new home 1.9
Average household size 2.7

A bar longer than the household average means the area gained more residents than its new housing could hold, and the extra had to be absorbed by existing homes.

Approval rate against projected need

Dwellings a year: what is currently being approved, against what the 2041 population projection implies.

Approved (5-yr average) 187
Implied need to 2041 269

Implied need assumes the average household stays at today’s 2.7 people. Approvals are not completions, and not every approval is built.

ProposedLEADING · to September 2026 Development Applications in Bathurst

What is being asked for right now — applications collected from council planning portals, before any of it reaches the ABS series above. AreaSearch tracks applications of material scale; routine minor works such as signage and fencing changes are not carried, so these are not counts of every application lodged. 29 of them carry an AreaSearch analyst assessment — look for the Analysed marker in the search below.

AreaSearch tracks 1,430 development applications of material scale lodged with councils across Bathurst, the most recent in September 2026. 110 of them are still in assessment. The biggest categories in the queue by value are commercial, industrial and retail.

Estimated value of applications by development type. This is the clearest single picture of what kind of place Bathurst is being asked to become. A further 4 applications sit across 1 smaller category, too few to plot.

Where the applications stand

As reported by the council. Highlighted rows are applications still in assessment.

Determined 490
Approved 153
Under Assessment 95
Withdrawn 30
Additional Information Requested 28
Returned 14

16 applications are still marked under assessment but were lodged more than 18 months ago. Councils often leave determined or abandoned applications open in their feeds, so they are counted here but excluded from the live queue above.

A further 605 applications carry no status in the council feed.

By local government area

Applications on record within each council area that overlaps Bathurst. This counts applications inside this statistical area only — it is not a total for the council.

Bathurst 607
Bathurst Regional 559
Bathurst Regional Council 127
Oberon 110
Oberon Council 26

Recent applications in Bathurst

By estimated cost of works, as lodged. Estimates are the applicant’s own figures and are not verified by AreaSearch.

Large Retail Developments and Commercial / Office Bathurst - South · Under Assessment · lodged Nov 2025
$1.3m

BuildingFORWARD Major Projects & Infrastructure in Bathurst

What is funded and moving — the projects large enough to change how Bathurst works, ranked by committed value and how close they are to delivery.

AreaSearch tracks 20 current projects across Bathurst. The largest is Sunny Corner Wind Farm at an estimated $1.40bn, due by 2030. That breaks down as 5 under construction, 4 approved and awaiting a start and 11 still in planning. The pipeline is weighted toward residential development, energy and retail.
The Gateway Bathurst
Under construction $400m by 2027

The Gateway Bathurst

The Gateway Bathurst is a 27-hectare landmark mixed-use commercial and business precinct in Kelso, featuring 1 kilometre of frontage to the Great Western Highway. The development is zoned E3 Productivity…

Bathurst - East

Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment
Under construction $200m by 2028

Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment

The Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment is a $200 million health project delivered by Health Infrastructure NSW to modernise healthcare delivery for the Central West region. The project includes an expanded…

Bathurst - West

Pretty Heights Estate
Under construction $94m by 2027

Pretty Heights Estate

Multi-stage residential land estate overlooking Bathurst and Mt Panorama. Stage 3 is now being actively marketed with registered lots available for sale while limited Stage 2 lots remain. The approved…

Bathurst - East

Also in the pipeline

Central West Pumped Hydro Project In planning · Energy · by 2029 · Bathurst Surrounds
$500m
MIR Group Residential Subdivision Approved · Residential Development · by 2027 · Bathurst - East
$150m
Hynash Constructions Marsden Heights Estate Subdivision Under construction · Communities · by 2027 · Bathurst - East
$60m
Sunny Corner Wind Farm In planning · Energy · by 2030 · Bathurst Surrounds
$1.40bn
Panorama Battery Energy Storage System In planning · Energy · by 2027 · Bathurst Surrounds
$160m
Brewongle Solar Farm In planning · Energy · by 2028 · Bathurst Surrounds
$150m
Bathurst Intermodal Transport Terminal In planning · Transport & Logistics · by 2029 · Bathurst - South
$80m
Gilmour Street Seniors Living Development Approved · Residential Development · by 2027 · Bathurst - East
$18m
Charles Sturt University Bathurst Campus Master Plan In planning · Education & Training · Bathurst - South
$200m
Sunnybright Stage 2 Approved · Residential Development · by 2026 · Bathurst - East
$8m
Bathurst Integrated Medical Centre In planning · Health & Medical · by 2027 · Bathurst - South
$70m
Windradyne 1100 Subdivision Under construction · Residential Development · by 2025 · Bathurst - West
$70m

5 further projects in Bathurst are not listed here.

AI Generated Denotes AI-based impression for illustrative purposes only, not to be taken as definitive under any circumstances. Please follow links and conduct other investigations from the project’s source for actual imagery. Developers and project owners wishing us to use original imagery please Contact Us and we will do so.

Estimated value of tracked projects by the year they are due to complete, stacked by how certain they are. The dark band is money already being spent; the pale band is still an intention. Estimates are indicative and mix infrastructure cost with whole-of-precinct development value, so read the shape rather than the totals.

Approvals Pipeline Development Applications in Bathurst

Development applications around Bathurst

Development approvals is a new addition to AreaSearch. We’re actively expanding council coverage and refining the dataset — details and statuses for some councils may be partial. Check back regularly for the latest pipeline.
Applications
In the local catchment
Est. Value
Where disclosed
Under Assessment
Awaiting determination
Determined
Approved or decided
Approvals pipeline Status, location, timing and project scale

Loading development applications…

Lodged Address Description Type Distance Status

SOURCE: Planning portals and council registers, compiled by AreaSearch. Distance & bearing measured from the suburb midpoint.

ProfessionalPRO Development Map for Bathurst

Applications and major projects plotted where they are actually proposed, with the 25 projects AreaSearch tracks here on their own tab — filterable by type, delivery stage, area and committed value. To search every application on record rather than this sample, use the section above.

Distribution Where Development Is Happening in Bathurst

Bathurst covers 5 statistical areas, and development is not spread evenly between them. Bathurst - West alone accounted for 39% of the area’s dwelling approvals in 2025-26. The top three between them took 79% of the total.

Dwelling approvals each financial year, split by the statistical area they fell in. Each column totals the whole Bathurst figure from the approvals chart above — SA2s nest exactly inside an SA3, so the two always reconcile. Tap or click an area in the legend to hide it and compare the rest.

Map builder

Each area below opens a map builder on its own page — a tool for putting a map and a table into a report. Pick the place types you want plotted (schools, supermarkets, medical, child care, transport and the rest of what AreaSearch holds), add development applications as their own layer, drop your own points, then recolour, renumber and export the result as a table or CSV. A this area only toggle clips everything to the boundary you are looking at. Searches are charged against your credit balance — 1 credit per 40 results from AreaSearch data — and setting filters costs nothing until you search. The builder works on one suburb-sized area at a time, which is why it opens per area rather than across the whole of Bathurst.

Bathurst - West area profile

80 approvals in 2025-26
39% of the area total · 286 applications on record · 280 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Bathurst - East area profile

55 approvals in 2025-26
27% of the area total · 339 applications on record · 378 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Bathurst - South area profile

29 approvals in 2025-26
14% of the area total · 563 applications on record · 94 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Oberon area profile

22 approvals in 2025-26
11% of the area total · 130 applications on record · 212 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Bathurst Surrounds area profile

21 approvals in 2025-26
10% of the area total · 112 applications on record · 94 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Planning Authorities Councils Covering Bathurst

Bathurst spans 3 local government areas — Bathurst Regional, Oberon and Lithgow. Applications here are assessed by whichever of those councils the site falls within. AreaSearch publishes development figures at ABS statistical boundaries rather than council boundaries. That is deliberate: the ABS issues a separate official building-approvals series for local government areas, and totals built up from statistical areas would not match it. Reporting at SA3 keeps every figure on this page reconcilable with the published ABS series.
Local government areaShare of BathurstApplications on recordRegister read to
Bathurst Regional 89% of residents 1,292 September 2026
Oberon 11% of residents 136 September 2026
Lithgow 0.0% of residents 1 September 2026

Compare Nearby Development Hubs

The same view of building approvals, applications and major projects for areas neighbouring Bathurst.

Data & Method Sources & Method for Bathurst

The four tenses, and what each one can tell you

Proposed — development applications
Collected from council planning portals. The earliest signal available, but the least certain: many applications are amended, withdrawn or refused, values are the applicant’s own estimate, and coverage varies by council. This is a curated set, not the full council feed: AreaSearch carries applications of material scale and does not track routine minor works such as signage, fencing or small alterations, so the counts here are lower than a council’s own total lodgement figure and should not be compared with it. Applications still shown as under assessment more than 18 months after lodgement are reported separately and kept out of the live-queue figures: the age profile of open applications is sharply split between a genuine queue under a year old and a long tail of records councils never closed. Not every state publishes a cost of works — Queensland, the Northern Territory and the ACT publish none at all — so on those pages applications are counted rather than valued and no dollar figure is shown rather than a partial one. Treated here as a snapshot of the current queue only — AreaSearch does not chart application counts over time, because the history reflects when each portal was collected rather than when development happened.
Approved — ABS building approvals
The official series, aggregated to SA3 from ABS building approvals data, currently published to August 2026. Counts dwelling units approved, not buildings and not completions. The most recent financial year is annualised from nine months of data wherever it appears and is labelled as such.
Building — major projects
Projects tracked individually by AreaSearch from Infrastructure Australia, state infrastructure agencies, developer disclosures and council records. Values are estimates and delivery dates are targets. Ranked on this page by committed value and delivery stage rather than by distance.
Delivered — verified new addresses
New residential addresses verified in the national address register since the 2021 Census. This is the closest available measure of what has actually been built, though address creation can lead occupation and lags construction. It is not a completions count.

Boundaries

Bathurst is Statistical Area Level 3 10301 in the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2021 edition), made up of 5 Statistical Areas Level 2. It has an estimated 51,157 residents, +4.1% since the 2021 Census.

Currency

MeasureSourceTo
Dwelling approvals, five-year average ABS / AreaSearch July 2026
House share of approvals ABS / AreaSearch July 2026
Residents per approval ABS / AreaSearch July 2026
Value per approved dwelling ABS / AreaSearch July 2026
Commercial work approved ABS / AreaSearch July 2026
Verified new addresses since the Census Address register / AreaSearch August 2026
Development applications Council planning portals September 2026
Major projects Infrastructure Australia / state agencies / AreaSearch Ongoing

Figures on this page are read live from the AreaSearch database each time it loads, so they update as soon as a source does.

Development in Bathurst — common questions

How many new dwellings were approved in Bathurst?

The ABS recorded 207 dwelling approvals across Bathurst in the 2025-26 financial year, against a five-year average of 187 a year.

How many development applications are lodged in Bathurst?

AreaSearch tracks 1,430 development applications of material scale across Bathurst — routine minor works such as signage and fencing are not included, so this is not a count of every application lodged, of which 110 remain in assessment. Applications are assessed within the Bathurst Regional, Oberon and Lithgow local government areas. The most recent application in our data was lodged in September 2026.

What major projects are planned for Bathurst?

AreaSearch tracks 20 current major projects in Bathurst, 5 of them under construction. The largest include The Gateway Bathurst, Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment and Pretty Heights Estate.

Which council covers Bathurst?

Bathurst is an ABS Statistical Area Level 3. It is covered by parts of 3 local government areas — Bathurst Regional, Oberon and Lithgow. AreaSearch publishes development figures at ABS statistical boundaries rather than council boundaries, so they reconcile with the official ABS series.

Is Bathurst growing faster than the rest of New South Wales?

On development approvals, Bathurst is adding new dwellings more slowly than New South Wales as a whole — 0.33 approvals per 100 existing dwellings a year against the state figure of 0.59.

How current is this development data?

ABS building approvals are published with a lag of roughly four months; this page carries the series to August 2026. Development applications are collected from council planning portals and refresh continuously, with the most recent application here lodged in September 2026. Major project records are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Each section carries its own currency label so the four are never confused.

Development data is provided for general information. Estimated values, dwelling counts and delivery dates come from the lodging or delivering party and are not independently verified by AreaSearch. Confirm anything material with the relevant council or agency before relying on it.