Sydney Councils and Developers Scramble to Fix Duplicate Image Problem That's Stalling Planning Approvals

Hundreds of development applications lodged through NSW Planning Portal have been caught in a processing backlog this week after a duplicate image replacement problem surfaced across multiple local government areas, forcing councils from Parramatta to Sutherland to manually review submitted documents before assessments can proceed.

The issue, which emerged in late June and sharpened into a crisis by July 1, centres on a fault in the portal's document upload system that in some cases substitutes a previously submitted image file for a newly uploaded one — meaning an applicant's current architectural plans or site photographs may be replaced, without warning, by an earlier file already sitting in the system. Councils cannot safely assess an application if they cannot confirm which version of a document is current.

The timing is particularly damaging. NSW is in the middle of a housing crisis that the Minns government has made its signature policy priority, and planning approval speed is a constant pressure point between the state government and local councils. Any system failure that adds days or weeks to assessment timelines feeds directly into that political argument.

Where the Delays Are Biting

Inner-west and western Sydney have taken the heaviest administrative hit. Parramatta City Council, which processes some of the highest volumes of medium- and high-density applications in the state, confirmed this week it had identified affected files and was working through them individually. The Parramatta Square development precinct, where several active commercial and mixed-use applications are in progress, is among the areas where at least some submissions have been flagged for manual review.

In the inner west, applicants lodging plans for dual-occupancy or secondary dwelling conversions — a category the state government has been actively encouraging through its Low and Mid Rise Housing reforms — have reported receiving automated notifications that their submissions are under review, with no clear timeline for resolution. The City of Sydney Council's assessment team, based at Town Hall House on Elizabeth Street, is understood to be cross-referencing submitted PDFs against original email confirmations to verify file integrity.

Private certifiers operating across Western Sydney growth corridors, including those handling high-volume estates in the Schofields and Box Hill release areas in The Hills Shire, have also flagged the problem to the Building Commission NSW, according to industry sources familiar with the situation. Those sources were not authorised to speak on the record, and The Daily Sydney has not independently verified the precise number of affected applications from official figures.

What the Data Situation Looks Like

NSW Planning Portal processes tens of thousands of applications annually across the state's 128 local government areas. The portal was significantly upgraded in 2022 as part of the former government's digital planning agenda, and has been a central plank of attempts to streamline DA processing. As of the March 2026 quarter, median determination times for complying development certificates in metropolitan Sydney sat at 17 calendar days, according to figures published by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure — a figure that industry groups argue is already too slow given housing supply targets.

The duplicate image fault does not affect all applications, and the department has not published a specific count of impacted files. Applicants with lodgements pending are being advised to log into the NSW Planning Portal directly and verify that the documents shown in their application match the files they intended to submit. Where discrepancies are found, the current advice is to contact the relevant council's DA helpdesk rather than attempt to re-upload, which risks compounding the problem.

The department is expected to issue formal guidance early next week. Developers and owner-builders with time-sensitive applications — particularly those tied to construction finance drawdown deadlines — should contact their council assessment team directly and obtain written confirmation of where their application sits in the queue. Planning lawyers in the CBD have already begun advising clients to document all portal interactions with screenshots and timestamps until the system fault is formally resolved and independently verified.