I think you had better apply as soon as possible. It's very hard to get a space in public day cares. My daughter applied for around 10 days cares since she was born and up to now (she is almost 2 years old now) she got a space but not the closest one to my home. If you can get subsidy
it's faster to get a space but if you pay the full payment by yourself the waiting list it's very long because most spaces go to those subsidy families. Some of my friends wait for the space for 3 years. For some registered private non-public day cares it's easy to get a space there. but i still prefer to public day care.