PropertyFlags · guideThe section 10.7 certificate, explained before you need it
Every NSW contract of sale carries one, most buyers meet it for the first time at the worst possible moment, and almost nobody reads it in full. Here is what a section 10.7 planning certificate actually contains, what it leaves out, and how to get the same answers earlier.
What is inside it
The certificate states the planning facts the council holds about the lot: the zoning and what it permits, whether flood related development controls apply, whether the land is bushfire prone, road widening and reservation proposals, heritage listings, and policy notations including certain contamination matters. The mandatory core is the 10.7(2); the fuller 10.7(5) adds whatever else the council chooses to disclose, and it is worth asking for.
Read as a whole, it answers one question with authority: what does the planning system already know about this land. When it says the lot is in a flood planning area or affected by an acquisition proposal, that is not an opinion, it is the council's own record.
The two honest problems
The first problem is timing. The certificate travels with the contract, and the contract appears after you have fallen for the home. By the time you read about the flood controls, you are negotiating, not shortlisting.
The second problem is scope. The certificate is a planning document. It says nothing about building defects, the strata record, contamination beyond policy notations, development applications on the street, noise, crime or the state of the building. A clean 10.7 is a clean planning position, not a clean property.
Getting the same answers earlier
The layers behind the certificate's key statements are public: the planning portal holds the zoning and the flood and bushfire layers, and they can be checked the day you first see the listing. A PropertyFlags report queries them live for any NSW address, alongside the registers the certificate never touches: defect orders, EPA contamination entries, development applications within 500 m, noise exposure and more. When the contract finally arrives, the certificate should confirm what you already knew.
Run a free flag count on an address → · See a full sample report · Guide: flood risk in NSW · The full due diligence checklist
Common questions
What is a section 10.7 planning certificate?
A certificate every NSW council issues for a lot under section 10.7 of the planning legislation, and a compulsory attachment to every contract of sale. It states the planning facts the council holds about the land: zoning, whether flood or bushfire related controls apply, road widening proposals, heritage status and similar. It is the closest thing NSW has to an official summary of the land's planning position.
What is the difference between a 10.7(2) and a 10.7(5)?
The 10.7(2) is the mandatory core: the matters councils must disclose. The 10.7(5) adds any further information the council chooses to provide, and careful buyers ask for it because the extra pages sometimes carry the detail that matters. If the contract only has the (2), your conveyancer can order the fuller version.
What does a 10.7 certificate not tell you?
Plenty. It is a planning document, not a condition report or a risk report: no building defects, no contamination history beyond specific policy notations, no noise, no crime, no development applications on the street, no state of the roof. It also speaks in planning language that takes practice to read.
When do I get to see it?
When the contract of sale is prepared, which in practice means after you are already emotionally committed to the home. That timing is the certificate's real weakness for buyers: the facts are official but they arrive late. The same planning layers can be checked the day you first shortlist the address.
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