shopfitout.com.auSheet SF-02
SF-02Approvals
It depends on what the space was used for before, what it will be used for now, and what building work the fit-out involves. In New South Wales, a shop taking over from another shop may need no planning approval at all, while turning premises into a café needs either a development application or a complying development certificate; in Victoria, the council’s planning scheme decides whether a planning permit is needed, and building work needs a building permit unless the regulations exempt it.
General information, not planning or legal advice. Your council, and in NSW the NSW Planning Portal, can confirm what applies to your premises.
A fit-out can raise two separate questions. One is about use: may this tenancy be used as a shop, a café or a salon? That is planning. The other is about building work: are the new walls, services and exits built to the building code? Both states answer the questions with different papers, and both send you to the council first.
| Question | New South Wales | Victoria |
|---|---|---|
| Where the rules live | The State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, alongside the council’s local environmental plan. | The council’s planning scheme, built from the Victoria Planning Provisions. |
| Is planning approval needed for the use? | Not for changes that stay inside one of the Planning Portal’s exempt business categories. Otherwise a complying development certificate or a development application. | Depends on the scheme: some uses need a permit, some do not, and some need one only for the buildings and works. |
| Who to ask first | The council; the NSW Small Business Commission suggests its duty planner if a fit-out is planned. | The responsible authority, usually the council. |
| The building side | A construction certificate before work starts, unless the work is exempt or complying development; an occupation certificate to occupy or change the use. | A building permit from a registered building surveyor, unless an exemption applies, issued only after any planning permit. |
The Planning Portal says planning approval is not required for a change of use that keeps within its business categories. Category 1 runs from business premises, office premises, shop or public administration building to any of those or a kiosk. The Portal lists two others, covering building, garden and rural supplies, and industry and warehousing. The current State Policy’s table in clause 2.20A has five categories in all. Two of the Portal’s other notes matter for a shop:
Any structure on public land or over a public road needs its own approval from the council or Transport for NSW, and exempt development generally cannot be carried out on land or a building on the State Heritage Register or under an interim heritage order. Where a change of use cannot meet the exempt provisions, the Portal says the complying development pathway may be open.
The planning department (named the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment when it wrote them) published fact sheets for small businesses in December 2020, still linked from the Portal’s Neighbourhood Centres page. Its retail shop sheet says an existing shop can be used as retail premises without development consent if every development standard is met. The standards it lists include no building alterations other than exempt ones, no increase in gross floor area, keeping to the conditions of the most recent development consent about matters such as hours, noise, parking and waste, and, where no hours condition applies, trading only between 7am and 7pm. The current State Policy keeps the alteration, floor area and consent-condition standards in clause 2.20B, but its two hours standards (keeping to an existing hours condition, or operating only between 7am and 7pm where there is none) apply only to development outside Zones E1, E2, E3, MU1, B1 to B8, IN4, SP1, SP2, SP3, SP5 and W4.
The same sheet says the new use must not change the building’s classification under the Building Code of Australia, except from Class 5 to Class 6, and that exempt work needs no certifier. The current State Policy allows the change both ways: “from a class 5 building to a class 6 building, or from a class 6 building to a class 5 building”, provided the building meets the code’s relevant provisions for the new use. Because the sheet is from 2020, check the current State Policy before relying on any standard in it.
The café sheet is plainer: a change of use to a restaurant or café “requires planning approval”, either by a development application to the council or by a complying development certificate. For the complying route, the use must be permissible with consent under the local environmental plan, the previous use must have been lawful, and the new café must follow the most recent council approval for the premises. That 2020 sheet named a seat limit that the current State Policy no longer carries. For a complying development certificate under the Policy’s Industrial and Business Buildings Code, which covers cafés on land in the business and industrial zones it lists, clause 5A.6C(1) says food and drink premises must comply with Australian Standard AS 4674-2004, Design, construction and fit-out of food premises, “have a maximum capacity of no more than 100 patrons”, and “display a sign indicating the maximum capacity”.
The sheet also lists other approvals to think about: council approval, under section 68 of the Local Government Act 1993, for connections to the water supply and waste water services, notification to the council and the NSW Food Authority, a food safety supervisor where required, and a Food Authority licence for certain activities, such as handling or processing meat. It says a council or accredited certifier can approve a complying development certificate in as few as 20 days when every standard is met. Sheet SF-04 covers the national food premises standard.
For work approved by a development application, the Planning Portal says a construction certificate must be obtained before building work starts, confirming the plans comply with the Building Code of Australia and other council requirements. It is not required for exempt or complying development. You need an occupation certificate before occupying and using a new building or part of one, or before changing the use of an existing building.
Victoria’s Department of Transport and Planning explains that planning schemes control use and development partly by requiring a permit for certain kinds. Its guide says the starting point is to ask the responsible authority whether a permit is needed. Under clause 72.06 of planning schemes, where a scheme allows a use, the land may be developed for it if every requirement of the scheme is met; sometimes only a permit for the use is needed, sometimes the use needs none but the buildings and works do. The guide also recommends talking to the council’s planning officers before an application is finalised.
Building is a separate permit. The Building and Plumbing Commission says the Building Act 1993 and Building Regulations 2018 require a building permit for all building work unless the Regulations give an exemption; some minor alterations may be among the exemptions. You apply through a registered building surveyor you appoint, and a building permit cannot be issued until any planning permit the project needs has been obtained. The permit states whether an occupancy permit or a certificate of final inspection is needed when the work is finished.
The building code side of any approval depends on the edition of the National Construction Code in force where you are. The Australian Building Codes Board lists NCC 2025’s adoption as 1 May 2026 in Victoria and 1 May 2027 in New South Wales, and warns that state variations can change when, or whether, a provision applies. Your certifier or building surveyor can tell you which edition your fit-out is assessed against.
Other states and territories have their own planning systems. This sheet covers New South Wales and Victoria only.