Parts of Sydney will be required to build thousands more new homes over the next five years, under the NSW government’s revised housing targets, which seek to “rebalance” housing growth from west to east.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the new housing targets for 43 local government areas (LGAs) were designed to help the state meet its commitment under the National Housing Accord to build 377,000 new well-located homes by 2029.
Woollahra’s five-year target has had the largest revision, almost quadrupling from 500 to 1,900, while targets for Ku-ring-gai, North Sydney, the Northern Beaches, the Hill’s Shire, Fairfield, and Hunters Hill have all doubled.
The new targets fall in line with the government’s strategy to build more low-to-mid-rise developments near transport hubs, with 82 per cent of the new homes to now come from infill areas and 18 per cent from greenfield locations.
‘Other parts of Sydney will have to share the load’
Speaking to business leaders on Wednesday, Mr Minns said the changes provided a “fair rebalance” to Sydney’s housing growth.
“Under this new plan, the east will account for 41 per cent of new planned dwellings, the middle-ring, which includes suburbs like Parramatta, Canterbury-Bankstown, Blacktown, the Georges River will deliver 37 per cent and the West will make up 22 per cent,” he said.
“In Kuringgai, Hunters Hill and Woollahra – over 70 per cent of new housing will be delivered as a result of these changes but in Liverpool, Wollondilly and Parramatta – councils that were already planning housing at scale – it will be less than 20 per cent.”
Other areas, which now must deliver more homes than originally planned include Inner West, Canada Bay and Hornsby.
Mr Minns said the new targets were “not getting in the way” of council areas which already have thousands of new planned dwellings like Blacktown, Liverpool, Wollondilly, and Parramatta.
“The west will continue to build new homes – but other parts of Sydney will have to share the load.”
As part of the announcement, a pool of $200 million in grants has been reserved for councils who meet and beat their housing targets, to fund infrastructure like green space ,and the maintenance of streets and footpaths.
“One of the reasons why housing targets have failed is that we’ve placed an enormous burden on Western Sydney and by any objective measure, we have not provided the infrastructure to cope with that increase in housing,” Mr Minns said.
“We’re seeking to rebalance the future of Sydney’s growth, towards established infrastructure… infrastructure that has been built by generations of taxpayers, closer to the eastern seaboard.”
‘Government has clearly done no consultation’
Deputy Mayor of Woollahra, Sarah Swan said her LGA was already the seventh most densely populated in the state and accused the government of not considering where they will find the space to build the new homes.
“The government has clearly done no consultation with our council area and obviously knows nothing about the character, the environment and the heritage of Woollahra council,” Ms Swan said.
“We are 12 square kilometres, we are quite small, and we have already done significant heavy lifting in relation to reaching and surpassing our targets, which were set previously.”
Ku-ring-gai Mayor, Sam Ngai said he was not surprised by the uplift in targets but believed the availability of construction workers could make it a difficult goal to achieve.
“The state governments been hinting at significant increases over the last six months,” he said.
“I think its theoretically achievable with the controls that are being imposed by the state government, however my concern is whether or not we have enough construction workers to deliver 377,000 in five years.”
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