When we have a crisis, the response is urgent, action is swift, and the full weight of government is deployed to solve the crisis. Think bushfires, floods and in more recent memory the impact of and response to the pandemic. The only crisis that doesn’t seem to meet with the same level of urgency is the housing supply crisis.
While paved with good intentions, earlier budgets have been more window dressing when it comes to housing supply.
The Governments own housing target is 75,000 new homes completed every year between now and 2029. NSW is barely completing 40,000. Without urgent and swift action NSW will keep falling behind its targets and homes will continue to become less affordable for everyday Australians.
The billion-dollar apartment pre-sale finance guarantee is a genuine supply side initiative that will help get many projects under construction faster. It’s a smart use of the Governments balance sheet.
It is really needed too. The pursuit of infill developments, with a strong focus on Transit Oriented Developments and Low and Mid-Rise buildings is not delivering apartments in the numbers the government had hoped. This is because the cost of doing business and building is too high in NSW and developers are struggling to build apartments at a price people can afford. Density isn’t bad policy but putting all their eggs in the one infill basket has left the government short of homes.
At the same time locations in Western Sydney, Central Coast and lower Hunter are desperate for enabling infrastructure that will facilitate more homes to be built. Infrastructure appears to be paying the price for the increased public sector wages bill.
Finally establishing a Works in Kind framework is a good step, artificially capping it is not. All this does is slow down the private sector funds flowing towards public infrastructure that is desperately needed for more housing.
Politics is a bit like sport, regardless of what you say the scoreboard eventually catches up with you. When it does, you don’t want to be the coach who overpromised and underdelivered, when it comes time to renew your contract.
*Written by The Hon. Stuart Ayres (Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) NSW, CEO)
