Housing must be number one priority at NSW election

BROADER development policies must see the major parties “put homes before politics” at next year’s NSW state election.

That is the view of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA NSW), which said the Low and Mid-Rise Housing (LMR) policy is crucial to increasing housing completions in NSW.

NSW is already tracking at 150,000 homes behind its National Housing Accord target and there should not be any further constraints on development or added complexity to the planning system, UDIA NSW said.

Housing completions have remained largely unchanged for the past four years.

UDIA NSW chief execeutive Stuart Ayres said that without clear and consistent pathways to development, such as the LMR policy, council-led master plans alone have consistently failed to deliver the housing NSW needs.

“The current LMR policy has the potential to deliver up to 112,000 new homes,” Ayres said.

“It’s difficult to see how council master plans alone could achieve the same level of housing supply/”

History shows that leaving housing delivery exclusively to local councils results in fewer homes being built than NSW requires, Ayres added.

UDIA NSW also warned against approaches which divide communities or treat different forms of housing as competing priorities.

“The upcoming election must put homes before politics,” Ayres said.

“Any strategy which pits communities in Sydney’s north and east against communities in the west simply won’t work.

“The reality is that NSW needs more homes of every type. If the Coalition adopts an anti-density position while Labor adopts an anti-greenfield position, the entire state loses.

“The priority for all political parties should be reducing constraints in the planning system, improving project feasibility by lowering fees, taxes and charges, and investing in the infrastructure needed to support new housing.”