Building regs analysis startup PropCode nails $400,000 pre-Seed round to simplify development planning

Sydney property development analytics startup PropCode has raised $400,000 in a pre-Seed round

Melbourne VC Skalata Ventures and Brisbane Angels joined the cap table alongside existing investor Antler Australia.

The funding will be used to continue the build of PropCode’s AI-based regulatory analysis engine for the construction industry.

Cofounded in 2022 with Antler’s backing by Will Sullivan and Jonah Turnquist, PropCode uses AI to translate complex planning legislation into a clear report, helping homeowners, professionals, and councils understand what and where developments are permitted. It enables users to search a residential address – for now the tech is piloting in NSW, with plans to rollout nationally soon – and receive a report outlining every regulation relevant to that site.

Sullivan said the complexity across jurisdictions is hampering the country’s attempts to address its housing shortage.

“Even for planners, architects and builders, wading through thousands of regulations – that vary by state – is grounding projects before ground is even broken,” he said.

“We’re providing a level of transparency and accuracy that no one else is offering currently.”

The federal government’s National Planning Reform Blueprint, is looking to build 1.2 million new houses in 5 years, but Sullivan said achieving that target “will depend on drastically improving planning processes”.

PropCode can also helps users plan new builds, or understand why historic proposals might’ve been rejected. The new “Rules as Code” AI technology PropCode is built upon translates legal documents into machine-readable code, then outputs human-readable summaries.

Cofounder Jonah Turnquist, a former Amazon and Atlassian engineer, said the federal housing ambitions are an enormous opportunity for their proptech

“Speaking to property professionals as well as government officials, the amount of pain and lack of innovation in this sector has become very clear,” he said.

“The NPRB will be huge, as it proposes changes that PropCode can directly help implement or interpret.”

Skalata investor Rob Greco agrees.

“Three direct blockers to increasing Australian housing supply are: under-resourced councils, limiting government policies, and good old-fashioned bureaucracy,” he said.

“PropCode has a hand on all these levers.” 

The startup has also released its PropCode Library, a free regulations viewer that makes it easier to find, read, and search NSW planning regulations.