Dubbo Regional Council expects more developments in 2020 than previous year

The year started off slow, but the number of applications submitted to council is starting to rise.

The COVID-19 pandemic, summer bushfires and the drought have all been blamed by council's manager building and development services Darryll Quigley for the slowing of development across the local government area.

For the 2019/20 financial year, there were 669 developments, 82 less than the previous 12 months.

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But it was the estimated value of the developments that had the biggest difference.

In the 2019/20 financial year, the combined total of the development applications was almost $151 million. It's half of the $334 million in 2018/19.

But Mr Quigley says 2018/19 was a record year for development in the city. It included a whopping $85 million development in the main street.

"While the overall value of the work is less, it's important to note that in the previous year, there were large and costly developments approved across the region - including an $85 million upgrade of the Liberal building- and the 2018/2019 year was also a record year for the Dubbo Region LGA in terms of value," he said.

"So, while the value may be down, the number of DAs being approved is still increasing."

Mr Quigley said the reduced value of the work undertaken between 2018/19 and 2019/20 was not unexpected "given the impact of COVID-19, summer bushfires and the considerable easing of a prolonged drought".

And the current trend shows development is picking up.

"In June Dubbo Regional Council received 69 development applications, this is slightly up on the number in April, which was 48. For the month of July, there were 59 DAs," Mr Quigley said.

"At this stage, council is trending to have slightly more DAs lodged for 2020 than in 2019, showing the Dubbo region is continuing to grow, despite these challenging times."

The increasing development figures spell good news for Dubbo.

"The continued development of the Dubbo region increases the economic activity, offers higher employment, a larger population, range of services, improved facilities and more opportunities in any number of fields including education, medicine and entertainment," Mr Quigley said.

In 2019/20 there were also 137 applications for single dwellings approved by council, in addition to 42 applications for 'other residential developments'.