NSW · Hunter · Urban
Newcastle City Council
A zone sets what may be built on the land — houses, apartments, shops, industry — and what may not. The zoning of Newcastle City Council, drawn from NSW’s own Land Zoning Map: every zone, where it applies and how much land it covers.
23% of Newcastle City Council is zoned residential.
Zoned by the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012 and State planning policies
Zoning map
Every zone, from NSW’s own map
20 zones and the land each covers
Residential4,857 ha23%
- R2 Low Density Residential4,079 ha19%
- R3 Medium Density Residential721 ha3.3%
- R4 High Density Residential57.7 ha0.3%
Employment and mixed use1,543 ha7.2%
- E1 Local Centre161 ha0.7%
- E2 Commercial Centre28.6 ha0.1%
- E3 Productivity Support53.9 ha0.3%
- E4 General Industrial898 ha4.2%
- E5 Heavy Industrial244 ha1.1%
- MU1 Mixed Use156 ha0.7%
Special purpose4,105 ha19%
- SP1 Special Activities2,403 ha11%
- SP2 Infrastructure1,701 ha7.9%
- SP3 Tourist1.4 haunder 0.1%
Recreation1,150 ha5.3%
- RE1 Public Recreation942 ha4.4%
- RE2 Private Recreation209 ha1%
Conservation9,566 ha44%
- C1 National Parks and Nature Reserves4,669 ha22%
- C2 Environmental Conservation2,973 ha14%
- C3 Environmental Management697 ha3.2%
- C4 Environmental Living1,227 ha5.7%
Waterways264 ha1.2%
- W2 Recreational Waterways264 ha1.2%
Other46.9 ha0.2%
- UL Unzoned Land46.9 ha0.2%
Where it comes from
The plans that zone Newcastle
- Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012The council's local environmental plan88%
- State Environmental Planning Policy (Transport and Infrastructure) 2021A State planning policy11%
- State Environmental Planning Policy (Precincts—Regional) 2021A State planning policy0.7%
A planning proposal under way can change this map. See Newcastle’s planning proposals.
The latest changes NSW published to the map
- State Environmental Planning Policy (Planning Systems) Amendment (Broadmeadow Precinct) 20258 Aug 2025
- Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012 — Map Amendment No 427 June 2025
- Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012 — Map Amendment No 330 June 2023
- State Environmental Planning Policy Amendment (Land Use Zones) 202324 Feb 2023
- State Environmental Planning Policy (Transport and Infrastructure) Amendment (Intertrade Industrial Park) 202226 Aug 2022
- State Environmental Planning Policy (Precincts—Regional) 20212 Dec 2021
Every lot’s controls
Across NSW, 0.7% of the zoned land is residential.
Lodgd holds the zone, height limit, floor space ratio and heritage of every lot in NSW — beside the development applications, CDCs and building certificates on it, and the homes each council’s zoning already allows.
Try the free demo →Measured over the zoning maps of all 128 councils: 70,858,225 hectares zoned, 482,381 of them residential (zones R1 to R5).
Of every hundred hectares NSW’s councils have zoned, this much is zoned residential.
Elsewhere in NSW
Zoning in other councils
How the system works. How land is rezoned · Transport-oriented precincts · All guides →
How we measure. Every zone NSW’s Land Zoning Map draws in Newcastle City Council — the council’s own plan, and the land State planning policies zone directly — as NSW publishes it. Areas are measured from NSW’s outlines; shares are of the land NSW’s map zones, waterways included. Zoned residential means zones R1 to R5, and the older residential zones a few State policies still use.