Development in Latrobe Valley

VIC

Building approvals, live development applications and major projects across the Latrobe Valley statistical area — covering Latrobe, South Gippsland and Baw Baw.

SA3 20504 Rest of Vic. 79,353 residents 6 statistical areas
Approved · FY25 487 dwellings approved
vs 5-yr average 388 average approvals a year
In the queue 4 live applications
Major projects 41 23 already under construction
Data Sources ABSCouncil planning portals ABS to June 2026 · Refreshed ABS QuickStats SA3 20504 How we calculate this

The Pipeline Development Pipeline in Latrobe Valley

1 Proposed 4 applications in assessment Leading · to July 2026 See applications ↓
2 Approved 487 dwellings approved in 2024-25, or 0.52 per 100 existing dwellings a year Official · ABS to June 2026 See approvals ↓
3 Building 41 major projects committed or under construction, 23 of them already on site Forward · completions to 2030+ See projects ↓
4 Delivered 1,790 new addresses verified since the 2021 Census, up 4.8% on the existing base Actual · to June 2026 Where it landed ↓
In the 2024-25 financial year the ABS recorded 487 dwelling approvals across Latrobe Valley. Right now, 4 development applications are before the 3 councils covering the area. AreaSearch tracks 41 major projects here that are committed or under construction, the largest being Marinus Link - Victorian Converter Station at an estimated $3.80bn. On the ground, 1,790 new addresses have been verified since the 2021 Census — growth of 4.8% 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 Latrobe Valley

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

Approvals are running at 0.52 per 100 existing dwellings a year, below the Victoria rate of 0.80. Development here remains overwhelmingly detached: houses account for 94% of recent approvals. The mix being approved closely matches what is already standing — 93% houses against 88% of existing homes. The average approved dwelling is valued at $384,000 in construction cost.

Dwelling units approved each financial year. The dashed line is the five-year average of 388.

How intensively is it building?

Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing dwellings.

Latrobe Valley 0.52
Victoria 0.80
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) 88%
Approved, last 5 years 93%
Approved, latest year 94%
Detached houses Apartments, townhouses & other

Approvals mix by year

Share of each year’s approvals.

2022
2023
2024
2025
2024-25
$199m
Residential work approved
2024-25
$128m
Commercial work approved
construction cost
$384,000
Average value per approved dwelling
last two years
201
Residents per approval

Supply & Demand Is Latrobe Valley Building Enough Homes?

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

Latrobe Valley approves about 4.9 new dwellings a year for every 1,000 residents. Since the 2021 Census it has added 2,185 residents and 1,790 new addresses — about 1.2 extra people per home built, below the 2.5-person average household, so building has run ahead of population growth. Housing the population projected for 2041 implies roughly 391 new dwellings a year from here, which puts the recent approval rate of 388 a year about level with 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 1.2
Average household size 2.5

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) 388
Implied need to 2041 391

Implied need assumes the average household stays at today’s 2.5 people. Approvals are not completions, and not every approval is built.

ProposedLEADING · to July 2026 Development Applications in Latrobe Valley

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. 42 of them carry an AreaSearch analyst assessment — look for the Analysed marker in the search below.

AreaSearch tracks 1,102 development applications of material scale lodged with councils across Latrobe Valley, the most recent in July 2026. The biggest categories in the queue by value are commercial, retail and aged care.

Estimated value of applications by development type. This is the clearest single picture of what kind of place Latrobe Valley is being asked to become. A further 48 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.

Approved 167
Permit Amended 27
Application Withdrawn 18
Application Lapsed 4
FI Request 4
Application Refused 3

A further 870 applications carry no status in the council feed.

By local government area

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

Latrobe 1,102

No current list of the largest applications can be shown for Latrobe Valley. 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 1,102 applications AreaSearch holds for this area, lodged between Jul 2008 and Apr 2019, are counted in the figures above.

BuildingFORWARD Major Projects & Infrastructure in Latrobe Valley

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

AreaSearch tracks 41 current projects across Latrobe Valley. The largest is Marinus Link - Victorian Converter Station at an estimated $3.80bn, due by 2030. That breaks down as 23 under construction, 12 approved and awaiting a start and 6 still in planning. The pipeline is weighted toward residential development, energy and environmental & disaster management.
Wooreen Energy Storage System
Under construction $700m by 2027

Wooreen Energy Storage System

EnergyAustralia is constructing a 350 MW utility-scale battery energy storage system with four hours of storage capacity (1,400 MWh) at the Jeeralang Power Station. The facility is designed to enhance grid…

Churchill

SEC Delburn Wind Farm
Under construction $650m by 2028

SEC Delburn Wind Farm

The SEC Delburn Wind Farm is Victoria's first publicly owned, utility-scale wind generation project. Located within an existing pine plantation in the Strzelecki Ranges, the facility will feature 33 wind…

Churchill

Traralgon North Growth Area
Under construction $650m by 2032

Traralgon North Growth Area

A 118-hectare greenfield urban expansion project delivering 1,500 new homes in the region's fastest-growing corridor. The precinct features a multi-purpose community hub, a commercial precinct with a 4,700sqm…

Traralgon - West

Also in the pipeline

Marinus Link Under construction · Energy · by 2030 · Morwell
$3.47bn
Hazelwood North Solar Farm Approved · Energy · by 2028 · Churchill
$651m
Tramway Road Battery Energy Storage System Approved · Energy · by 2028 · Churchill
$400m
Cross's Road Development Plan Approved · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2028 · Traralgon - East
$338m
Silverwood Estate Under construction · Residential Development · by 2026 · Traralgon - East
$138m
Regional Housing Fund Gippsland Under construction · Residential Development · by 2028 · Traralgon - West
$135m
Maryvale Energy from Waste (EfW) Facility Approved · Environmental & Disaster Management · by 2028 · Morwell
$600m
Hazelwood North ULAB Recycling Facility Under construction · Environmental & Disaster Management · by 2027 · Morwell
$120m
Bennetts Creek Battery Approved · Energy · by 2028 · Morwell
$250m
Marinus Link - Victorian Converter Station Approved · Energy · by 2030 · Morwell
$3.80bn
The Rise Estate Under construction · Residential Development · by 2027 · Traralgon - West
$100m
Franklin North Estate Under construction · Residential Development · by 2026 · Traralgon - West
$92m

26 further projects in Latrobe Valley are not listed here.

Combined values on this page exclude 1 record that appear to be separate stages of a project already counted. Both are still listed above with their own values.

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.

Beyond 2030: a further $942m across 4 projects with completion dates further out — mostly precinct-scale programs whose dates are indicative. Kept out of the chart so the years you can act on stay readable.

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 Latrobe Valley

Development applications around Latrobe Valley

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 1,102 applications for Latrobe Valley, 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.

ProfessionalPRO Development Map for Latrobe Valley

Applications and major projects plotted where they are actually proposed, with the 54 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 Latrobe Valley

Latrobe Valley covers 6 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 Latrobe Valley.

Moe - Newborough area profile

No separate approvals series published
214 applications on record · 582 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Traralgon - West area profile

No separate approvals series published
92 applications on record · 163 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Morwell area profile

No separate approvals series published
310 applications on record · 301 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Traralgon - East area profile

No separate approvals series published
405 applications on record · 436 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Churchill area profile

No separate approvals series published
64 applications on record · 179 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Yallourn North - Glengarry area profile

No separate approvals series published
17 applications on record · 129 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Planning Authorities Councils Covering Latrobe Valley

Latrobe Valley spans 3 local government areas — Latrobe, South Gippsland and Baw Baw. 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 Latrobe ValleyApplications on recordRegister read to
Latrobe 100% of residents 1,102 July 2026
South Gippsland 0.1% of residents Not yet collected
Baw Baw 0.1% of residents Not yet collected

Compare Nearby Development Hubs

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

Data & Method Sources & Method for Latrobe Valley

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 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

Latrobe Valley is Statistical Area Level 3 20504 in the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2021 edition), made up of 6 Statistical Areas Level 2. It has an estimated 79,353 residents, +2.8% since the 2021 Census.

Currency

MeasureSourceTo
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 July 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 Latrobe Valley — common questions

How many new dwellings were approved in Latrobe Valley?

The ABS recorded 487 dwelling approvals across Latrobe Valley in the 2024-25 financial year, against a five-year average of 388 a year.

How many development applications are lodged in Latrobe Valley?

AreaSearch tracks 1,102 development applications of material scale across Latrobe Valley — routine minor works such as signage and fencing are not included, so this is not a count of every application lodged, of which 4 remain in assessment. Applications are assessed within the Latrobe, South Gippsland and Baw Baw local government areas. The most recent application in our data was lodged in July 2026.

What major projects are planned for Latrobe Valley?

AreaSearch tracks 41 current major projects in Latrobe Valley, 23 of them under construction. The largest include Wooreen Energy Storage System, SEC Delburn Wind Farm and Traralgon North Growth Area.

Which council covers Latrobe Valley?

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

Is Latrobe Valley growing faster than the rest of Victoria?

On development approvals, Latrobe Valley is adding new dwellings more slowly than Victoria as a whole — 0.52 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 July 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.