UDIA welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure on practical improvements to the existing provisions governing the Metropolitan Rural Area and existing land use strategies surrounding Greater Sydney. UDIA NSW has long supported a review into the existing impediments to development in the Greater Sydney region, as well as the existing planning controls governing the Metropolitan Rural Area borders.
The MRA has prevented several well intentioned and well-planned developments from commencing in areas which exhibit similar strategic planning merit, to areas which are adjacent to but which sit within the MRA boundary. Amid a housing supply crisis where greenfield housing development is arguably the most feasible to develop, we believe that sensible and pragmatic changes to the MRA could greatly assist in helping achieve the state’s housing ambitions without contravening strategic planning principles.
UDIA’s first edition of the National Housing Pipeline (NHP)® report for New South Wales, released in September 2024, presented real concerns around the capacity for NSW to meet its housing targets. The NHP has identified that without additional interventions from government, the Sydney Megaregion is unlikely to exceed 171,400 completed homes during the five-year National Housing Accord period, representing a shortfall of 150,600 homes.
Our full submission can be found via the Download link below