The PipelineDevelopment Pipeline in Darebin - South
1 Proposed2applications in assessmentLeading · to June 2026See applications ↓
2 Approved213dwellings approved in 2024-25, or 0.27 per 100 existing dwellings a yearOfficial · ABS to June 2026See approvals ↓
3 Building23major projects committed or under construction, 10 of them already on siteForward · completions to 2029+See projects ↓
4 Delivered647new addresses verified since the 2021 Census, up 2.6% on the existing baseActual · to June 2026Where it landed ↓
In the 2024-25 financial year the ABS recorded 213 dwelling approvals across Darebin - South. Right now, 2 development applications are lodged in the Darebin local government area. AreaSearch tracks 23 major projects here that are committed or under construction, the largest being Northcote Green (Northcote Plaza Redevelopment) at an estimated $500m. On the ground, 647 new addresses have been verified since the 2021 Census — growth of 2.6% 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.
ApprovedBuilding Approvals in Darebin - South
What councils and certifiers have formally
permitted — the ABS series, published about four months in arrears.
Approvals are running at 0.27 per 100 existing dwellings a year, well below the Victoria rate of 0.80. The mix is genuinely split — 46% of recent approvals are detached houses and 54% are attached or higher-density dwellings. That is a clear shift back toward detached housing — the five-year average is 36% houses. Detached houses make up 50% of the homes already standing here but only 36% of the past five years of approvals, so the area is densifying. The average approved dwelling is valued at $664,000 in construction cost.
For its size, Darebin - South is adding 0.27 dwellings a year per 100 existing homes — well below the Victoria rate of 0.80 and the national rate of 0.71. That is about 3.4 approvals a year for every 1,000 residents. Building intensity has fallen by about 60% across the published series.
Measured against people rather than housing stock, Darebin - South is approving 1.74 dwellings a year per 1,000 residents — well below the Victoria rate of 7.97. The two rate views differ by household size, which here averages 2.4 people per home. Housing the projection to 2041 would need about 10.67 per 1,000 residents a year.
Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing
homes, with Victoria and Australia for comparison. This is the
same activity as the totals view, divided by the size of the area — which is the only
fair way to compare a large SA3 with a small one.
Dwelling approvals a year per 1,000
residents, each year divided by that year’s estimated resident
population (ABS ERP at 30 June), not by today’s — which matters most in fast-growing
areas, where a fixed denominator can understate the early years by half. The most recent periods use the latest published ERP, as the population series runs a year behind approvals. Read it alongside the per-100-homes view: the two differ wherever household size does.
Dwelling units approved each financial year. The dashed line is the five-year average of 197.
How intensively is it building?
Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing dwellings.
Darebin - South0.27
Victoria0.80
Australia0.71
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)50%
Approved, last 5 years36%
Approved, latest year46%
Detached housesApartments, townhouses & other
Approvals mix by year
Share of each year’s approvals.
2022
2023
2024
2025
2024-25
$170m
Residential work approved
2024-25
$69.9m
Commercial work approved
construction cost
$664,000
Average value per approved dwelling
last two years
419
Residents per approval
Supply & DemandIs Darebin - South Building Enough Homes?
The same approvals, measured against the population
they have to house.
Darebin - South approves about 3.4 new dwellings a year for every 1,000 residents. Since the 2021 Census it has added 4,261 residents but only 647 new addresses — about 6.6 extra people for every home built, against an average household of 2.4. On those numbers supply has not kept pace with growth. Housing the population projected for 2041 implies roughly 614 new dwellings a year from here, which puts the recent approval rate of 197 a year well 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 home6.6
Average household size2.4
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)197
Implied need to 2041614
Implied need assumes the average household stays
at today’s 2.4 people. Approvals are not
completions, and not every approval is built.
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. 22
of them carry an AreaSearch analyst assessment — look for the
Analysed marker in the search below.
AreaSearch tracks 1,101 development applications of material scale lodged with council across Darebin - South, the most recent in June 2026. The biggest categories in the queue by value are multi-residential, mixed-use and retail.
Estimated value of applications by development type. This is the clearest
single picture of what kind of place Darebin - South is being asked to become. A further 9 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.
Planning Permit Issued43
Plan/Permit Amended27
Permit Issued (post NOD)16
Withdrawn15
Lapsed9
VCAT Permit Approved6
1 application is still marked under
assessment but was lodged more than
18 months ago. Councils often leave determined or
abandoned applications open in their feeds, so
it is counted here but excluded
from the live queue above.
A further 947 applications carry no status in the council feed.
By local government area
Applications on record within each council area that
overlaps Darebin - South. This counts applications inside this
statistical area only — it is not a total for the council.
Darebin1,101
No current list of the largest applications can be shown for Darebin - South.
Nothing on record here is both still open and lodged within the last
18 months. Victoria has no
state-wide planning portal and its council coverage is uneven, so what AreaSearch can
collect here is a record of past activity rather than a live queue. We are currently
investigating a solution. The
1,101 applications AreaSearch holds for this area, lodged
between Apr 2008 and Aug 2020, are counted in the figures above.
BuildingFORWARDMajor Projects & Infrastructure in Darebin - South
What is funded and moving — the projects large enough
to change how Darebin - South works, ranked by committed value and how close
they are to delivery.
AreaSearch tracks 23 current projects across Darebin - South. The largest is Northcote Green (Northcote Plaza Redevelopment) at an estimated $500m, due by 2028. That breaks down as 10 under construction, 3 approved and awaiting a start and 10 still in planning. The pipeline is weighted toward residential development, communities, precincts & urban renewal and communities.
In planning$500mby 2028
Northcote Green (Northcote Plaza Redevelopment)
A $500 million revitalization of the southern 15,000 sqm portion of Northcote Plaza. The VCAT-approved masterplan, designed by Fender Katsalidis, features four residential towers (up to 18 storeys) containing…
A boutique residential development of 79 architect-designed apartments and townhouses within the YarraBend masterplan on the former Amcor Paper Mill site in Alphington. The building retains a heritage mill…
47 architecturally designed, fossil fuel-free townhouses by KUD for Lucent Group. Features a 7.5 Star NatHERS rating, rooftop solar, north-facing courtyards, and a central communal space.
The Wilds NorthcoteUnder construction · Residential Development · by 2026 · Northcote - West
$60m
Thornbury HouseUnder construction · Residential Development · by 2028 · Thornbury
$25m
Fairfield Station Precinct RedevelopmentIn planning · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2027 · Alphington - Fairfield
$15m
Route 86 Tram Accessibility UpgradesIn planning · Transport & Logistics · by 2026 · Thornbury
$25m
Corner NorthcoteUnder construction · Residential Development · Northcote - East
$22m
Greenfield ApartmentsIn planning · Residential Development · by 2026 · Alphington - Fairfield
$15m
73-75 High Street Mixed-Use DevelopmentIn planning · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2029 · Northcote - West
$25m
McDonald's NorthcoteApproved · Communities · by 2026 · Northcote - West
$2m
680 High Street Residential DevelopmentIn planning · Residential Development · by 2026 · Thornbury
$15m
791-793 High Street DevelopmentIn planning · Residential Development · by 2027 · Thornbury
$5m
531-535 St Georges Road DevelopmentUnder construction · Residential Development · by 2025 · Thornbury
$15m
658-664 High Street ApartmentsUnder construction · Residential Development · by 2025 · Thornbury
$12m
8 further projects in
Darebin - South are not listed here.
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 PipelineDevelopment Applications in Darebin - South
Development applications around
Darebin - South
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.
Application search is not available in Victoria.
AreaSearch holds 1,101 applications for Darebin - South, but they are a record of past activity rather than a current register. Victoria has no state-wide planning portal and its council coverage is uneven, so we
have switched the search off here rather than return partial answers. We are
currently investigating a solution. No credits are charged for Victorian
applications, and building approvals from the ABS and the major projects we track
are unaffected.
SOURCE: Planning portals and council registers, compiled by AreaSearch. Distance & bearing measured from the suburb midpoint.
ProfessionalPRODevelopment Map for Darebin - South
Applications and major projects plotted where
they are actually proposed, with the
37 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.
DistributionWhere Development Is Happening in Darebin - South
Darebin - South covers 4 statistical areas. Follow any of them through for a full profile of population, housing, sales and amenity at local scale.
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
Darebin - South.
Planning AuthoritiesCouncils Covering Darebin - South
Development in Darebin - South is assessed within the Darebin local government area. 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.
CompareNearby Development Hubs
The same view of building approvals, applications and
major projects for areas neighbouring Darebin - South.
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 June 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
Darebin - South is Statistical Area Level 3 20602 in the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2021 edition), made up of 4 Statistical Areas Level 2.
It has an estimated 57,531 residents, +8.0% since the 2021 Census.
Currency
Measure
Source
To
Dwelling approvals, five-year average
ABS / AreaSearch
June 2026
House share of approvals
ABS / AreaSearch
June 2026
Residents per approval
ABS / AreaSearch
June 2026
Value per approved dwelling
ABS / AreaSearch
June 2026
Commercial work approved
ABS / AreaSearch
June 2026
Verified new addresses since the Census
Address register / AreaSearch
May 2026
Development applications
Council planning portals
June 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 Darebin - South — common questions
How many new dwellings were approved in Darebin - South?
The ABS recorded 213 dwelling approvals across Darebin - South in the 2024-25 financial year, against a five-year average of 197 a year.
How many development applications are lodged in Darebin - South?
AreaSearch tracks 1,101 development applications of material scale across Darebin - South — routine minor works such as signage and fencing are not included, so this is not a count of every application lodged, of which 2 remain in assessment. Applications are assessed within the Darebin local government area. The most recent application in our data was lodged in June 2026.
What major projects are planned for Darebin - South?
AreaSearch tracks 23 current major projects in Darebin - South, 10 of them under construction. The largest include Northcote Green (Northcote Plaza Redevelopment), Paper House Alphington and Bastings Community.
Which council covers Darebin - South?
Darebin - South is an ABS Statistical Area Level 3. It is covered by the Darebin local government area. AreaSearch publishes development figures at ABS statistical boundaries rather than council boundaries, so they reconcile with the official ABS series.
Is Darebin - South growing faster than the rest of Victoria?
On development approvals, Darebin - South is adding new dwellings more slowly than Victoria as a whole — 0.27 approvals per 100 existing dwellings a year against the state figure of 0.80.
How current is this development data?
ABS building approvals are published with a lag of roughly four months; this page carries the series to June 2026. Development applications are collected from council planning portals and refresh continuously, with the most recent application here lodged in June 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.
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.