One Bondi Junction Building, Three Consents. $17.5 Million Declared to Council, $120.8 Million in the Developer's Own Cost Report.
362–384 Oxford Street was refused by Waverley's planning panel, approved by the Land and Environment Court and extended under a State consent. Its declared cost of works covers about a seventh of the residential building — and declared costs are not designed to cover more.
The application on the panel record
DA-157/2022 was lodged with Waverley Council on 26 April 2022 by Cassa Blanka Pty Ltd. The panel record describes demolition and a 14-storey shop-top housing development with basement parking, 39 apartments, a swimming pool and a childcare centre, incorporating changes to an already approved development at 362–374 Oxford Street. The declared cost of works was $17,540,099.
It sought two clause 4.6 variations to the Waverley Local Environmental Plan 2012. The proposed height was 52.5 metres against a 38-metre standard, about 38% over. The floor space ratio was 5.746:1 against 5:1, 14.9% over.
The assessing officer recommended refusal. On 21 September 2022 the Waverley Local Planning Panel refused the application 4–0, for the reasons in the officer's report. Among them, the panel found that the written requests to vary height and floor space ratio did not adequately address the required matters, that the height caused view loss and overshadowing, and that the bulk was an overdevelopment of the site. The reasons also found the design failed quality principles under SEPP 65 and the design excellence clause of the LEP, and did not maintain the site's non-residential floor space, as the Bondi Junction provisions require.
Three consents, none from Council
The applicant appealed, and on 4 October 2023 the Land and Environment Court approved the development.
That was the second consent on the site, not the first, and not the last. The full chain is on the public record:
DA-89/2016 — a 14-storey mixed-use building at 362 Oxford Street with residential units, serviced apartments, retail, basement parking and a planning agreement. Lodged by Cassa-Nova Pty Ltd, the owner named on DA-157/2022. Approved by the Sydney Central Planning Panel on 24 August 2017.
DA-157/2022 — refused by Waverley's panel, approved by the Land and Environment Court on 4 October 2023.
SSD-71481718 — a State significant development consent granted on 27 June 2025 by a delegate of the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces. It approves seven residential levels and internal fit-out to a 15–16 storey shop-top housing development "approved under DA-89/2016 and DA-157/2022": two connected towers, 118 apartments including 23 affordable apartments, and six levels of basement parking.
DA-70/2026 — lodged with Waverley on 6 March 2026, also by Cassa Blanka, proposing three more residential levels and a greater building height as additions to DA-157/2022. It was still under assessment when our Waverley record was last refreshed.
Three consents from three different authorities. None was granted by Waverley Council.
What the cost figure actually measures
The State application carried a cost report from Berco Consulting, the applicant's quantity surveyor, dated 12 February 2025. It puts the total development cost of the residential building at $120,802,123, excluding GST. Of that, $41,976,421 relates to works under the two earlier development applications and $78,825,703 to the increment under the State consent.
Against $120.8 million, the $17.5 million declared on DA-157/2022 is about 14.5%. The total is 6.9 times the declared figure. Per apartment, $120.8 million over 118 apartments is about $1.02 million; $17.5 million over the 39 apartments in the DA description is about $450,000.
Even $120.8 million is a floor. The report states that it excludes the commercial and retail space.
None of this shows a figure was misstated. The report lists what an estimated development cost excludes, and one exclusion is any part of a development that is the subject of a separate consent or approval. Cost is declared per consent. A building assembled across several consents is not required to have its whole cost declared on any one of them.
Reading cost as precedent
For anyone using DA records as precedent, two things follow.
First, a cost of works on a single application is the cost of that application's increment, not of a building. Of the 853 items in our Waverley panel record, 163 are modifications to an existing consent, and 81 of those carry a cost figure. Each describes a change. The same applies, less visibly, to any original application that builds on an earlier consent, as DA-157/2022 did. A cost comparison across applications is only valid once the consent chain behind each figure is known.
Second, a panel refusal is a point in a site's history, not its outcome. At 362–384 Oxford Street the refusal is still a detailed public record of what Council's assessment found wrong with the height and bulk. The building that followed was approved by the Court, then by the State, and is now the subject of a further application to Council to go higher.
The cost figures are the applicant's own estimates, stated as at September 2025 and including a 30% floor space uplift. Our record carries the outcome of the Court appeal, not the Court's reasons.
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