Wales is changing, and the planning system offers a useful view of what that change looks like.

As Planda Portal prepares to launch in Wales, we analysed a full export of 22,762 planning applications from 7 October 2025 to 7 October 2026. We then created a cleaner dataset of 13,920 new proposals, removing duplicate, follow-on and administrative applications, lawful development certificates and tree works.

The result is a snapshot of what people, businesses and developers are actually trying to build across Wales - and some of the patterns are surprising.

Wales is seeing fewer planning applications - but development hasn't stopped

Annual application volumes have fallen from around 29,000 in 2021–22 to roughly 23,000 in the latest year.

But the fall in overall applications doesn't mean development has stopped. The dataset still contains thousands of proposals across housing, agriculture, hospitality and leisure, including some very large individual schemes.

The picture is therefore less about a lack of development and more about a planning system handling fewer applications while still dealing with a substantial development pipeline.

Nearly 11,000 homes are sitting in the pipeline

Around 11,000 new homes were proposed across Wales during the year, yet fewer than 1,000 have been approved so far.

That's largely because many of the biggest schemes are still awaiting decisions. Bridgend alone accounts for roughly 3,000 proposed homes, including schemes of around 980 and 850 homes.

The more interesting story, therefore, isn't simply the number of approvals. It's the scale of housing currently moving through the planning system — and how quickly that pipeline turns into actual development.

Where you apply makes a big difference

Around 88% of decided applications were approved, but there was significant variation between councils. Approval rates ranged from around 75% in Newport to 97% in Neath Port Talbot.

Decision times also varied. The median was around 55 days, with Torfaen at approximately 42 days compared with 76 days in Bridgend and 77 in Gwynedd.

These figures aren't a simple league table: councils deal with very different applications and local circumstances. But they do show that the experience of planning can vary significantly depending on where you are in Wales.

November saw an unusual surge in new proposals

Around 1,700 new proposals appeared in November 2025, compared with roughly 1,100 in a typical month.

The increase occurred across multiple councils, suggesting it wasn't simply the result of one unusually busy authority.

It highlights how uneven planning activity can be throughout the year, with significant fluctuations in the volume of work entering the system.

Residential development dominates, but Wales is planning much more than housing

Housing accounted for roughly 7,600 of the new proposals, making it by far the largest category.

But agriculture followed with around 1,300 proposals, alongside approximately 760 hospitality and 540 leisure applications.

That mix shows that planning data captures much more than housebuilding. It provides a broader picture of investment, business activity and how people are changing the buildings and land around them.

Green upgrades are becoming a visible part of planning activity

Around 410 proposals included solar panels and roughly 370 included heat pumps. There were also around 130 barn conversion proposals.

These numbers don't represent a wholesale transformation of the Welsh built environment, but they do show how renewable energy, energy efficiency and the reuse of existing buildings are becoming part of everyday planning activity.

At scale, small individual applications start to reveal broader changes in how Wales is using its buildings and land.

And 833 applications were made retrospectively

There were 833 retrospective applications in the dataset, where permission was sought after development had already taken place.

That isn't necessarily evidence of wrongdoing, but it does highlight that not every planning journey begins with an application before work starts.

It also reinforces the value of getting the planning process right at the outset — rather than trying to resolve issues after development has already happened.

What does all of this tell us?

The Welsh planning system may be handling fewer applications than it was a few years ago, but there is still significant development activity underneath the headline numbers.

Nearly 11,000 homes are in the pipeline, council performance varies considerably, and applications reflect wider changes in housing, business, agriculture and the transition towards greener buildings.

That's part of why we're launching Planda Portal in Wales.

The planning process can be complex before an application ever reaches a planning officer. Applicants need to know what's required, which documents are needed and whether their submission is complete.

Planda Portal is designed to reduce some of that friction by validating applications before submission and helping applicants navigate the process more confidently.

The goal isn't to change planning decisions. It's to make the journey to those decisions clearer, more reliable and less unnecessarily difficult.