
In an assertive progression to tackle the mounting scarcity of affordable housing, New South Wales (NSW) has declared a bold $2.2 billion initiative to augment housing supply, simultaneously curbing housing prices in the process. This strategic blueprint is designed to decisively eliminate bureaucratic red tape, thereby facilitating substantial enhancements to local infrastructure to ease the housing crisis.
With NSW lagging behind the federal National Housing Accord’s projected target of constructing 75,000 fresh abodes annually, the necessity of this ambitious housing project is paramount. The past year witnessed only 48,000 home completions, reflecting the state’s sluggish pacing, which forces an escalating number of residents to confront Sydney’s prohibitively high median housing prices.
Chris Minns, Premier of NSW, underscored the necessity of housing supply for easing exorbitant housing costs. Emphasizing urban consolidation, accelerated home construction along transportation routes, and bolstering government-funded infrastructure in metropolitan Sydney, Minns conveyed the paramount importance of the government’s commitment to this cause. The objective entails ensuring funds for infrastructure while eliminating administrative impediments to expedite housing completions across the state.
The housing blueprint has allocated $300m of its $2.2bn budget to Landcom, a housing company charged with the responsibility of creating an additional 4,697 homes by 2039. Three-tenths of this construction will be set aside for social housing. On an annual scale, the company presently builds between 2,500 and 3,000 residences.
A sum of $400m, funneled from completed Restart NSW projects, will be injected into the Housing Infrastructure Fund to support construction projects integral to urban living like roads, parks, and sewers.
An impressive $1.5bn has been consigned to develop infrastructure elements such as parks, roads, hospitals and schools across various regions including Sydney, the Central Coast and the Illawarra, and the Lower Hunter.
Paul Scully, Planning Minister, stressed the crucial role of private sector participation in ramping up housing stock and flagged potential future reforms. Scully encouraged a cohesive, system-wide involvement to expediently deliver homes in large volumes.
Meanwhile, Minns highlighted labor shortages as a considerable strain on housing supply, particularly in the government sector. He underscored the significance of private capital and construction as a means to alleviate economic demand constraints by boosting marketplace supply.
Tom Forrest, chief executive of Urban Taskforce, an industry body representing property developers, questioned the omission of developer incentives in the budget to enhance housing stock despite the private sector supplying more than 95% of new homes. He criticised the overemphasis on social and affordable housing as a stopgap measure towards the housing crisis rather than a long-term solution.
Despite this critique, Forrest welcomed the funding, seeing it as a positive hint of impending governmental planning reforms. He commented on the multi-step, labor-intensive process involved in generating new residences, citing the multiple taxes each step introduces. According to Forrest, these taxes on property development directly affect housing availability.
Regardless of current low confidence levels in the market, there is optimism that imperative planning reforms will soon come into play to realize the expected increase in housing stock, as recorded in the budget forecast.