The Opportunity
Every week, hundreds of development applications are lodged with Brisbane City Council, Gold Coast City Council, Sunshine Coast Council, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay, and Toowoomba. Every DA is public record. Almost no one reads them systematically — because the portals are slow, inconsistent, and require manual checking across multiple LGAs.
But buried in that data is commercial intelligence worth paying for. A new hotel DA in Fortitude Valley signals FF&E suppliers, labour hire, food and beverage fit-out contractors. A childcare centre approval in Ripley signals surrounding retail and service demand. A new commercial development in Toowoomba signals investor interest in that corridor. The problem is not access to the data — it is the work required to convert raw DAs into actionable leads by vertical.
SEQ Approval Radar does that work automatically and delivers vertical-specific alert digests to paying subscribers.
But buried in that data is commercial intelligence worth paying for. A new hotel DA in Fortitude Valley signals FF&E suppliers, labour hire, food and beverage fit-out contractors. A childcare centre approval in Ripley signals surrounding retail and service demand. A new commercial development in Toowoomba signals investor interest in that corridor. The problem is not access to the data — it is the work required to convert raw DAs into actionable leads by vertical.
SEQ Approval Radar does that work automatically and delivers vertical-specific alert digests to paying subscribers.
Target Subscribers (ICP)
🏗 Commercial real estate agents
🛠 Construction suppliers & trades
🏞 Town planners & consultants
🍽 Hospitality operators
📈 Property investors
📋 Finance brokers
💼 Insurance brokers
👔 Signage & fitout companies
Each vertical sees different signal in the same DA data. The product is scoped, filtered, and delivered per vertical — not a raw data dump. That is the product. That is what they pay for.
Revenue Model
Individual subscription
One vertical, one LGA or SEQ-wide
$49–$99/mo
Team subscription
Up to 5 users, full vertical access
$199–$299/mo
Enterprise / agency
Multi-vertical, white-label alert digest
$499+/mo
Lead list exports
One-off DA-triggered lead list purchases
$99–$299/list
30 individual subscribers at $79/mo = $2,370 MRR. That is the breakeven floor, achievable in 60 days with focused outreach to a single vertical. The ceiling is significantly higher once multi-vertical and enterprise tiers activate.
How It Works
Data layer
Automated scrapers poll SEQ council DA portals on a 24–48 hour cycle. Raw DAs are parsed for development type, address, estimated value, applicant, stage, and lodgement date. Stored in a lightweight database with deduplication.
Classification engine
Each DA is classified by development type (residential, commercial, hospitality, childcare, industrial, mixed-use) and tagged with relevant ICPs. Simple rule-based classifier with AI-assisted edge-case handling. Accuracy target: 95%+.
Alert delivery
Weekly or daily digest email per subscriber. Includes: development type, address, LGA, stage, estimated value, and a one-line commercial implication. Link to full DA. No login required — value delivered in the inbox.
Subscriber portal
Simple web dashboard for filtering, searching, and exporting DAs. Stripe for billing. Subscriber can adjust vertical, LGA, and alert frequency. Minimum viable: email digest only in v1. Portal is v2.
Risk Register — Downside First
01
High
Council portal changes / blocking scrapers
Councils can change portal structure or rate-limit scrapers. Mitigate with polite scraping cadence, multiple IP sources, and fallback to manual monitoring for critical LGAs. Long-term: explore official data feed agreements.
02
Medium
Subscriber churn if alert quality degrades
The product lives and dies on alert relevance. A badly classified DA alert that wastes a subscriber’s time erodes trust fast. Build accuracy QA into the weekly cycle before scaling subscriber count.
03
Medium
Replication by a larger data aggregator
PlanningAlerts, Nearmap, and others could add vertical alert layers. Speed to market and vertical specificity are the defensible positions. Build the subscriber relationship before this happens.
04
Low
SEQ DA volume insufficient for value
If DA lodgement rates slow (e.g., planning freeze), alert volume drops and subscriber value falls. Partially hedged by covering all SEQ LGAs and including both lodgements and decisions.
Elon’s Execution Log
E
Status: Queued — activates after #001 reaches operational. SEQ council portals mapped: BCC, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay, Toowoomba. Scraper prototype drafted and tested against BCC. Classification ruleset written for 8 development types. ICP priority: commercial real estate agents and hospitality operators for founding cohort outreach.
E
Week 1: Scraper live across all 7 LGAs. Week 2: First 10 beta subscribers recruited via direct LinkedIn outreach (commercial agents, planners). Free month in exchange for feedback on alert relevance. Week 4: Paid tier opens. Week 6: Target 30 paying subscribers. MRR goal at 60 days: $2,000+.