UDIA NSW welcomes the NSW Government’s commitment to tackle the housing supply crisis by identifying opportunities to rezone surplus Government Land for residential.
In an acute housing crisis such as this, the NSW Government must look to utilise all levers available to them which must include both Government owned land, whilst fast-tracking delivery of housing on privately owned land with floor space (FSR) bonuses.
“By accelerating apartment approvals on private land, which are down two thirds from their 2016 peak in NSW, there is also the opportunity to deliver more affordable apartments at no cost to government, using an improved model of the existing FSR bonuses scheme.” said Steve Mann, CEO, UDIA NSW.
UDIA modelling has shown that a 30% floor space and height bonus can deliver 26% of the bonus units (as affordable housing at no cost to government), without negative impact on the price of market apartments. Based on a simple 100 unit development utilising the 30% bonus to deliver 130 units in total, this would be equate to 8 affordable housing units.
Working with Community Housing Providers and the proposed Federal Housing Australia Future Fund this can be increased to deliver at below the build cost of affordable housing on government land, with up to two thirds of the bonus units able to be purchased at a 50% discount to market value (ie. 20 affordable units at below the build cost on government land).
The new NSW Government has the huge opportunity to deliver a major increase in apartment supply and affordable housing at scale, with industry asked to submit State Assessed Rezonings for projects of 1,000 units in Greater Sydney and 300 units in regional markets in January this year.
“These proposals have now been with government for 4 months and if the Minns labour government is serious about tackling the housing shortage in NSW, one of their first decisions will be approval to proceed with the State Assessed Rezoning pathway to end the uncertainty for what could be new supply of tens of thousands of new homes in NSW,” said Steve Mann.
Government must work with industry, local government and state agencies to ensure these opportunities are leveraged, be it on surplus Government land, or on private land where there is a commitment to get on and deliver much needed housing in the immediate future.
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Media Enquiries pls contact Deanna Lane dlane@udiansw.com.au 0416 295 898