Development in Macedon Ranges

VIC

Building approvals, live development applications and major projects across the Macedon Ranges statistical area — covering Macedon Ranges.

SA3 21002 Greater Melbourne 35,827 residents 4 statistical areas
Approved · FY25 242 dwellings approved
vs 5-yr average 301 average approvals a year
In the queue 345 applications on record
Major projects 10 3 already under construction
Data Sources ABSCouncil planning portals ABS to June 2026 · Refreshed ABS QuickStats SA3 21002 How we calculate this

The Pipeline Development Pipeline in Macedon Ranges

1 Proposed 345 applications on record, though this council feed does not publish assessment status Latest June 2026 See applications ↓
2 Approved 242 dwellings approved in 2024-25, or 0.67 per 100 existing dwellings a year Official · ABS to June 2026 See approvals ↓
3 Building 10 major projects committed or under construction, 3 of them already on site Forward · completions to 2030+ See projects ↓
4 Delivered 981 new addresses verified since the 2021 Census, up 7.2% on the existing base Actual · to June 2026 Where it landed ↓
In the 2024-25 financial year the ABS recorded 242 dwelling approvals across Macedon Ranges. AreaSearch tracks 10 major projects here that are committed or under construction, the largest being Gisborne Futures Structure Plan at an estimated $50m. On the ground, 981 new addresses have been verified since the 2021 Census — growth of 7.2% 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 Macedon Ranges

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

Approvals are running at 0.67 per 100 existing dwellings a year, below the Victoria rate of 0.80. Development here remains overwhelmingly detached: houses account for 92% of recent approvals. The mix being approved closely matches what is already standing — 95% houses against 95% of existing homes. The average approved dwelling is valued at $490,000 in construction cost.

Dwelling units approved each financial year. The dashed line is the five-year average of 301.

How intensively is it building?

Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing dwellings.

Macedon Ranges 0.67
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) 95%
Approved, last 5 years 95%
Approved, latest year 92%
Detached houses Apartments, townhouses & other

Approvals mix by year

Share of each year’s approvals.

2022
2023
2024
2025
2024-25
$134m
Residential work approved
2024-25
$71.4m
Commercial work approved
construction cost
$490,000
Average value per approved dwelling
last two years
150
Residents per approval

Supply & Demand Is Macedon Ranges Building Enough Homes?

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

Macedon Ranges approves about 8.4 new dwellings a year for every 1,000 residents. Since the 2021 Census it has added 2,858 residents and 981 new addresses, roughly one new home per 2.9 extra residents — broadly in step with an average household of 2.9. Housing the population projected for 2041 implies roughly 259 new dwellings a year from here, which puts the recent approval rate of 301 a year comfortably ahead of 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 2.9
Average household size 2.9

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) 301
Implied need to 2041 259

Implied need assumes the average household stays at today’s 2.9 people. Approvals are not completions, and not every approval is built.

ProposedLEADING · to June 2026 Development Applications in Macedon Ranges

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

AreaSearch tracks 345 development applications of material scale lodged with council across Macedon Ranges, the most recent in June 2026. The biggest categories in the queue by value are aged care, commercial and retail.

Estimated value of applications by development type. This is the clearest single picture of what kind of place Macedon Ranges is being asked to become.

Where the applications stand

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

By local government area

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

Macedon Ranges 345

No current list of the largest applications can be shown for Macedon Ranges. 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 345 applications AreaSearch holds for this area, lodged between Nov 2008 and Nov 2020, are counted in the figures above.

BuildingFORWARD Major Projects & Infrastructure in Macedon Ranges

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

AreaSearch tracks 10 current projects across Macedon Ranges. The largest is Gisborne Futures Structure Plan at an estimated $50m, due by 2050. That breaks down as 3 under construction, 2 approved and awaiting a start and 5 still in planning. The pipeline is weighted toward sports & recreation, transport & logistics and business parks & technology hubs.
Macedon Ranges Sports Precinct
Under construction $46m by 2027

Macedon Ranges Sports Precinct

The Macedon Ranges Sports Precinct is a staged regional sport and recreation development at New Gisborne, spread across two interconnected sites at the intersection of Barringo and Hamilton roads. It is the…

Gisborne

Gisborne Business Park Expansion
In planning $35m by 2030

Gisborne Business Park Expansion

Planned expansion of the Gisborne Business Park to the south and east of the existing New Gisborne industrial area. The project is intended to provide additional industrial and commercial land, support local…

Gisborne

Daylesford to Hanging Rock Shared Trail
In planning $15m by 2029

Daylesford to Hanging Rock Shared Trail

Proposed regional shared trail linking Daylesford, Tylden, Woodend, Hanging Rock and Kyneton through a combination of rail trail and shared-use trail sections. The project is being jointly progressed by…

Macedon

Also in the pipeline

New Gisborne Development Plan Implementation Approved · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2050 · Gisborne
$25m
Gisborne Futures Structure Plan In planning · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2050 · Gisborne
$50m
C153 Willowbank Road Commercial Rezoning In planning · Residential Development · by 2026 · Gisborne
$8m
Melbourne Metro Tunnel - Metro Tunnel And Stations Works Package Under construction · Transport & Logistics · Gisborne
Melbourne Metro Tunnel - Rail Systems Alliance Under construction · Transport & Logistics · Gisborne
Gisborne Secondary College Trades Hub Approved · Education & Training · Gisborne
Gilbert Gordon Oval Netball Court In planning · Sports & Recreation · Gisborne

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 $75m across 2 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 Macedon Ranges

Development applications around Macedon Ranges

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 345 applications for Macedon Ranges, 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 Macedon Ranges

Applications and major projects plotted where they are actually proposed, with the 15 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 Macedon Ranges

Macedon Ranges 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 Macedon Ranges.

Gisborne area profile

No separate approvals series published
173 applications on record · 781 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Romsey area profile

No separate approvals series published
108 applications on record · 149 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Riddells Creek area profile

No separate approvals series published
31 applications on record · 40 new addresses since 2021
Build a map

Macedon area profile

No separate approvals series published
33 applications on record
Build a map

Planning Authorities Councils Covering Macedon Ranges

Development in Macedon Ranges is assessed within the Macedon Ranges 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.

Compare Nearby Development Hubs

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

Data & Method Sources & Method for Macedon Ranges

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

Macedon Ranges is Statistical Area Level 3 21002 in the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2021 edition), made up of 4 Statistical Areas Level 2. It has an estimated 35,827 residents, +8.7% 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 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 Macedon Ranges — common questions

How many new dwellings were approved in Macedon Ranges?

The ABS recorded 242 dwelling approvals across Macedon Ranges in the 2024-25 financial year, against a five-year average of 301 a year.

How many development applications are lodged in Macedon Ranges?

AreaSearch tracks 345 development applications of material scale across Macedon Ranges — routine minor works such as signage and fencing are not included, so this is not a count of every application lodged. Applications are assessed within the Macedon Ranges local government area. The most recent application in our data was lodged in June 2026.

What major projects are planned for Macedon Ranges?

AreaSearch tracks 10 current major projects in Macedon Ranges, 3 of them under construction. The largest include Macedon Ranges Sports Precinct, Gisborne Business Park Expansion and Daylesford to Hanging Rock Shared Trail.

Which council covers Macedon Ranges?

Macedon Ranges is an ABS Statistical Area Level 3. It is covered by the Macedon Ranges local government area. AreaSearch publishes development figures at ABS statistical boundaries rather than council boundaries, so they reconcile with the official ABS series.

Is Macedon Ranges growing faster than the rest of Victoria?

On development approvals, Macedon Ranges is adding new dwellings more slowly than Victoria as a whole — 0.67 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.