1 Proposed150applications in assessmentLeading · to September 2026See applications ↓
2 Approved1,443dwellings approved in 2025-26, or 0.67 per 100 existing dwellings a yearOfficial · ABS to August 2026See approvals ↓
3 Building109major projects committed or under construction, 46 of them already on siteForward · completions to 2030+See projects ↓
4 Delivered4,298new addresses verified since the 2021 Census, up 5.8% on the existing baseActual · to August 2026Where it landed ↓
In the 2025-26 financial year the ABS recorded 1,443 dwelling approvals across Toowoomba. Right now, 150 development applications are before the 2 councils covering the area. AreaSearch tracks 109 major projects here that are committed or under construction, the largest being Inland Rail - Gowrie to Kagaru (G2K) at an estimated $3.55bn. On the ground, 4,298 new addresses have been verified since the 2021 Census — growth of 5.8% 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.
ApprovedBuilding Approvals in Toowoomba
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, in line with the Queensland rate of 0.77. Development here remains overwhelmingly detached: houses account for 76% of recent approvals. The mix being approved closely matches what is already standing — 81% houses against 81% of existing homes. The average approved dwelling is valued at $441,000 in construction cost.
For its size, Toowoomba is adding 0.67 dwellings a year per 100 existing homes — in line with the Queensland rate of 0.77 and the national rate of 0.71. That is about 5.5 approvals a year for every 1,000 residents. Building intensity has been broadly stable across the published series.
Measured against people rather than housing stock, Toowoomba is approving 8.21 dwellings a year per 1,000 residents — in line with the Queensland rate of 8.54. The two rate views differ by household size, which here averages 2.7 people per home. Housing the projection to 2041 would need about 3.75 per 1,000 residents a year.
Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing
homes, with Queensland 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 976.
How intensively is it building?
Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing dwellings.
Toowoomba0.67
Queensland0.77
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)81%
Approved, last 5 years81%
Approved, latest year76%
Detached housesApartments, townhouses & other
Approvals mix by year
Share of each year’s approvals.
2023
2024
2025
2026
2025-26
$666m
Residential work approved
2025-26
$504m
Commercial work approved
construction cost
$441,000
Average value per approved dwelling
last two years
158
Residents per approval
Supply & DemandIs Toowoomba Building Enough Homes?
The same approvals, measured against the population
they have to house.
Toowoomba approves about 5.5 new dwellings a year for every 1,000 residents. Since the 2021 Census it has added 15,754 residents but only 4,298 new addresses — about 3.7 extra people for every home built, against an average household of 2.7. On those numbers supply has not kept pace with growth. Housing the population projected for 2041 implies roughly 667 new dwellings a year from here, which puts the recent approval rate of 976 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 home3.7
Average household size2.7
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)976
Implied need to 2041667
Implied need assumes the average household stays
at today’s 2.7 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. 177
of them carry an AreaSearch analyst assessment — look for the
Analysed marker in the search below.
AreaSearch tracks 4,060 development applications of material scale lodged with councils across Toowoomba, the most recent in September 2026. The most common types in the queue are multi-residential, commercial and industrial. Live applications account for about 479 proposed dwellings.
Number of applications by development type. This is the clearest
single picture of what kind of place Toowoomba is being asked to become. Councils in
Queensland do not publish an estimated cost of works in
their planning feeds, so applications here are counted rather than valued. A further 35 applications sit across
3 smaller categories,
too few to plot.
Where the applications stand
As reported by the council. Highlighted rows are
applications still in assessment.
Decided3,141
Past490
In Progress163
Public Notification8
Awaiting Outstanding Items7
In Progress - On Public Notification2
30 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 248 applications carry no status in the council feed.
By local government area
Applications on record within each council area that
overlaps Toowoomba. This counts applications inside this
statistical area only — it is not a total for the council.
Toowoomba3,811
Lockyer Valley249
Recent applications in Toowoomba
By the number of dwellings proposed, as lodged. Figures are the applicant’s own and are not verified by AreaSearch.
Construction of 58 single and two-storey residential dwellings with associated worksMiddle Ridge · In Progress · lodged Jun 2026
58 dwellings
Amendment to approved shopping centre and 56-unit residential development, increasing parking.Toowoomba - Central · In Progress · lodged Feb 2026
56 dwellings
Development Permit for 39 Multiple Dwellings and 1 into 2 Lot SubdivisionHighfields · In Progress · lodged Mar 2026
39 dwellings
39-dwelling multiple dwelling development and 1 into 2 lot subdivisionHighfields · In Progress · lodged Mar 2026
39 dwellings
36-dwelling multiple dwelling development and 1 into 2 lot residential subdivisionToowoomba - East · In Progress · lodged Jun 2026
36 dwellings
36-unit multiple dwelling development across 8-10 storeys and a 1-into-2 lot subdivisionToowoomba - East · In Progress · lodged Jun 2026
36 dwellings
Seven-story residential development comprising 28 apartment units and partial basement parking.Rangeville · In Progress · lodged Jul 2026
28 dwellings
Construction of 16 x 2 bedroom units across 4 single-storey buildingsToowoomba - West · In Progress · lodged Jun 2026
16 dwellings
BuildingFORWARDMajor Projects & Infrastructure in Toowoomba
What is funded and moving — the projects large enough
to change how Toowoomba works, ranked by committed value and how close
they are to delivery.
AreaSearch tracks 109 current projects across Toowoomba. The largest is Inland Rail - Gowrie to Kagaru (G2K) at an estimated $3.55bn, due by 2032. That breaks down as 46 under construction, 16 approved and awaiting a start and 47 still in planning. The pipeline is weighted toward residential development, transport & logistics and communities, precincts & urban renewal.
Under construction$1.40bnby 2028
Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct
Wagner Corporation is developing a 430-hectare master-planned aerospace and defence precinct at Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport. Officially launched in May 2025, the precinct is anchored by Boeing Australia's 9,000…
The $1.98 billion New Toowoomba Hospital is a major redevelopment at the Baillie Henderson Hospital campus. Under the Queensland Government Hospital Rescue Plan, the facility will feature 538 overnight beds…
Contemporary farmhouse-inspired over-50s land lease lifestyle resort on 23 hectares with panoramic views of the Bunya and Gowrie mountains, bushland conservation area and creek frontage. The community will…
Habitat - Mt Kynoch MasterplanUnder construction · Communities · by 2029 · Gowrie (Qld)
$200m
WalermareUnder construction · Residential Development · by 2026 · Highfields
$200m
Habitat Mt KynochUnder construction · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2028 · North Toowoomba - Harlaxton
$200m
AATLIS PrecinctUnder construction · Business Parks & Technology Hubs · by 2028 · Toowoomba - West
$176m
Kearney West EstateUnder construction · Communities · by 2028 · Darling Heights
$175m
Lockyer Valley Foods Processing Facility Stage 1Approved · Manufacturing · by 2027 · Lockyer Valley - West
$400m
Mission Australia Toowoomba Social and Affordable HousingUnder construction · Communities · by 2027 · Newtown (Qld)
$150m
The Avenues of HighfieldsUnder construction · Residential Development · by 2029 · Highfields
$150m
Toowoomba Fairways Country Club Retirement VillageUnder construction · Health & Medical · by 2027 · Wilsonton
$100m
Kearney West EstateUnder construction · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2028 · Wilsonton
$85m
Central Highfields MasterplanApproved · Communities, Precincts & Urban Renewal · by 2030 · Highfields
$400m
94 further projects in
Toowoomba are not listed here.
Combined values on this page exclude
1 whole-of-state program that
reaches this area but are not
local to it, and 1 record that appear to be
separate stages of a project already counted. Both are still listed
above with their own values.
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 $5.20bn across
7 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 PipelineDevelopment Applications in Toowoomba
Development applications around
Toowoomba
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 pipelineStatus, 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.
ProfessionalPRODevelopment Map for Toowoomba
Applications and major projects plotted where
they are actually proposed, with the
150 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 Toowoomba
Toowoomba covers 15 statistical areas, and development is not spread evenly between them. The busiest was Highfields with 349 approvals in 2025-26. The top three between them took 58% of the total.
Approvals per 100 existing homes in
2025-26, by statistical area, with the Toowoomba figure marked. Ranked
rather than stacked: rates cannot be added together.
Approvals per 1,000 residents in 2025-26,
by statistical area, against each area’s own estimated resident population, with the
Toowoomba figure marked. A small area building hard is invisible in
the totals view and obvious here.
Dwelling approvals each financial year, split by the statistical area they
fell in. Each column totals the whole Toowoomba 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.
The smallest 10 areas are
grouped as one band.
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
Toowoomba.
Toowoomba spans 2 local government areas — Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley. 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 area
Share of Toowoomba
Applications on record
Register read to
Toowoomba
88% of residents
3,811
September 2026
Lockyer Valley
12% of residents
249
June 2026
CompareNearby Development Hubs
The same view of building approvals, applications and
major projects for areas neighbouring Toowoomba.
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
Toowoomba is Statistical Area Level 3 31701 in the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2021 edition), made up of 15 Statistical Areas Level 2.
It has an estimated 177,813 residents, +9.7% since the 2021 Census.
Currency
Measure
Source
To
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 Toowoomba — common questions
How many new dwellings were approved in Toowoomba?
The ABS recorded 1,443 dwelling approvals across Toowoomba in the 2025-26 financial year, against a five-year average of 976 a year.
How many development applications are lodged in Toowoomba?
AreaSearch tracks 4,060 development applications of material scale across Toowoomba — routine minor works such as signage and fencing are not included, so this is not a count of every application lodged, of which 150 remain in assessment. Applications are assessed within the Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley local government areas. The most recent application in our data was lodged in September 2026.
What major projects are planned for Toowoomba?
AreaSearch tracks 109 current major projects in Toowoomba, 46 of them under construction. The largest include Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct, New Toowoomba Hospital and GemLife Highfields Heights.
Which council covers Toowoomba?
Toowoomba is an ABS Statistical Area Level 3. It is covered by parts of 2 local government areas — Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley. AreaSearch publishes development figures at ABS statistical boundaries rather than council boundaries, so they reconcile with the official ABS series.
Is Toowoomba growing faster than the rest of Queensland?
On development approvals, Toowoomba is adding new dwellings at about the same rate as Queensland as a whole — 0.67 approvals per 100 existing dwellings a year against the state figure of 0.77.
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.
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.