General Residential dominant. Median sale $445K over the last 24 months. 92% of decided DAs approved.
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Zoning
Forbes is dominated by R1 — General Residential. Land use rules, height, FSR, and permitted developments are set per zone in the Local Environmental Plan and refined by the Development Control Plan.
Limit varies by lot — check your address for the exact figure.
Floor Space Ratio — total floor area as a multiple of lot area.
Location
Forbes 2871 covers an undefined area within Forbes Shire Council.
Drill into any lot in Forbes
Open the interactive map — click any address to see its zone, height, FSR, overlays, and approval likelihood.
Development potential
We score every lot for development signal — under-built relative to the controls, eligible for a granny flat, or sized for subdivision.
under SEPP (Housing) 2021
lots that may support subdivision
adjoining lots with combined upside
show at least one development signal
average uplift signal across the suburb
Own a property in Forbes?
Check your lot's exact development potential — height, FSR, granny flat, subdivision, dual-occ.
Constraints & risks
30% of lots are in mapped flood zones — material for any development; also: 5% of lots carry heritage controls; 4.4% of lots intersect a Threatened Ecological Community.
Suburb-wide percentages — your specific lot may have all, some, or none of these.
Mapped flood-prone land
RFS bushfire-prone land mapping
Heritage item or Conservation Area
Within 100 m of EPA-listed site
Mapped TEC vegetation
Coastal hazard mapping
ANEF / aircraft noise
Hardware store · serves Forbes, NSW
7 Oxford St, Forbes NSW 2871
Market
Sales, rent, and yield data drawn from NSW Property Sales Information and rental bond data over the past 24 months.
Greater Sydney Region Plan / NSW Department of Planning forecast.
DA activity
236 development applications for Forbes addresses were decided by Forbes Shire Council over the past 24 months. 218 approved — a 92% approval rate. Average processing time: 32 days.
Demographics & lifestyle
ABS Census 2021 population data combined with lot-level amenity, healthcare, lifestyle, and crime indices.
Walkable amenity within 1 km
GP / hospital / pharmacy proximity
Cafés, parks, schools, transport
ZoneDSS Marketplace
27 businesses serving Forbes and nearby.
Hardware store
7 Oxford St, Forbes NSW 2871
Painter
11 Spring St, Forbes NSW 2871
Solicitor
9 Harold St, Forbes NSW 2871
Home improvement store
Cnr Newell Hwy &, Lamb St, Forbes NSW 2871
Insurance broker
74 Rankin St, Forbes NSW 2871
Real estate agent
143 Lachlan St, Forbes NSW 2871
Run a local business? Get found by property owners researching Forbes.
List your business — freeFAQs
Forbes is dominated by the R1 (General Residential) zone, which covers 3,202 of 7,122 lots (48%). The full mix is: R1 General Residential (48%), RU1 Primary Production (36%), R5 Large Lot Residential (7%), E1 Local Centre (6%), RU4 Primary Production Small Lots (3%).
Across Forbes, the average maximum building height is 9.6 m. Height is set per zone in the Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and can be varied by overlays and schedules. For the exact control on a specific address, generate a planning report.
Yes — 3,542 lots in Forbes appear eligible for a granny flat under SEPP (Housing) 2021, based on lot size, zoning, and frontage. Eligibility is lot-specific: get a planning report on your address to confirm.
The median sale price in Forbes over the past 24 months is $445,000, across 389 sales. Median unimproved land value is $118,000.
Median weekly rent for a house in Forbes is $410. Gross rental yield works out to 4.8%.
Forbes Shire Council decided 236 development applications for Forbes addresses over the past 24 months, with 218 approved (92% approval rate). Average processing time is 32 days. Processing time depends heavily on application complexity, council backlog, and whether the application requires referral to other agencies.
Across Forbes, 29.5% flood-affected, 5% with heritage controls, 0.9% bushfire-prone, 0.3% near contaminated sites. These are suburb-wide percentages — every lot has its own combination. A planning report on a specific address shows exactly which controls apply.
0 of 7,122 lots in Forbes show identifiable development potential — under-developed for the planning controls, eligible for a granny flat, or capable of subdivision. Average rezoning signal score: 16.1 / 100.
Continue exploring
Compare zoning, development potential, and DA activity across other suburbs in Forbes Shire Council and nearby postcodes.
Painter · serves Forbes, NSW
11 Spring St, Forbes NSW 2871
Suburb-wide stats are useful for context. For a buy-or-walk decision on a specific lot, you need every control, every constraint, and every clause cited to source.
Run a report — from A$2914-section report · LEP + SEPP + DCP cross-referenced · cited to source
Verify with official sources
Don't take our word for it. Every figure on this page is computed from authoritative New South Wales Government data — and you can verify any of it directly with the source.
Official zoning, height, FSR, and overlay maps for any NSW address. The primary source for everything on this page.
planningportal.nsw.gov.au
Cadastral lot boundaries, aerial imagery, easements, and environmental overlays from NSW Spatial Services.
maps.six.nsw.gov.au
State-listed heritage items and Heritage Conservation Areas. Search by suburb to see what's listed in Forbes.
hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au
Sites notified to the EPA under the Contaminated Land Management Act. Critical for due diligence on any address.
apps.epa.nsw.gov.au
Rural Fire Service map of bushfire-prone land categories. Triggers BAL assessment requirements for new builds.
rfs.nsw.gov.au
Australian Bureau of Statistics QuickStats for postcode 2871 — population, age, household composition, income, tenure.
abs.gov.au
Zoning, height, FSR, and overlays parsed from the Forbes Shire Council Local Environmental Plan, applicable State Environmental Planning Policies, and the Development Control Plan. Property sales drawn from NSW Property Sales Information. DA history aggregated from the NSW Planning Portal. Heritage, flood, bushfire, contaminated land, TEC, sea-level rise, and aircraft noise overlays from the NSW Spatial Services and EPA registers. Population, age, income, and tenure from ABS Census 2021. Aggregated by ZoneDSS · last updated 2026-04-27.
Suburb-wide statistics — your specific lot may vary. Always run a planning report on the actual address before making a decision. How ZoneDSS works →