For the financial year to the end of January, there have been 414 development applications approved. It's almost 60 down from the 473 approved in the same time period the year before.

The value of the developments has also decreased.

Between July 2018 and January 2019 the DAs given the green light by council were worth a total estimated value of more than $158 million.

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That's shrunk from between July 2019 and January 2020 to $88 million.

Approvals for housing are also down.

Councillor Kevin Parker said there were only four approvals for single dwellings in January, making it "one of the lowest approvals that [council] has ever, ever had".

He said he hoped to see a lot more in the coming months.

"The numbers were down considerably compared the the last number of years but I guess we have been affected by drought and economic conditions as well."

"Hopefully, down the track we'll see an improvement in the numbers and the actual values."

But council director development and environment Stephen Wallace said after analysing the numbers he had seen a few similar falls in previous years.

"Back in 2011/12 it was a quieter year. We had four [dwelling] approvals in given months at different stages," Mr Wallace said.

"It's not indicative, it's just a snapshot."

While the dwellings were trending down across the past couple of years, Mr Wallace said it wasn't a significant decrease.

This financial year there have been 98 applications for single dwellings approved, while for the same time period last year it was 105.

"We're a bit quieter in the market but not as quiet as I first thought. With multi-unit housing in those three years it's 58 and 60 [units approved] and this year it's 59," Mr Wallace said.

"So that's the good news, we're not as quiet as you think we might be with dwellings."

Those 59 units have come from 33 DAs for multi-unit housing.

Currently, the average DA takes 25 business days to approve, which Mr Wallace said was very competitive.

For anyone who wants it to be signed off sooner, there are multiple options, including paying for the process to be expedited.

As well as the four DAs for single dwellings in January, the month also included five for swimming pools, eight for garages or carports and one tourism development worth an estimated $2.8 million.