Oh No !!! NSW falls behind Strata Development Targets

NSW is supposed to be the leading property state in Australia, but recent data released about new dwelling development suggests NSW is falling behind other states and it’s own development targets.

A study called Residential Development in Sydney, commissioned by the NSW Treasury, has just been released and criticises the NSW state government for numerous policy shortcomings that have led to a fall in the number of new dwellings completed in Sydney from 32,358 in 1999-2000 to 14,795 in 2007-08.

That’s less than half as many new dwellings now than 10 years ago … amazing!

It gets worse too …

Fewer than 4000 new houses were built in Sydney each year between 2005-06 and 2007-08

Measured by value, residential homes built in NSW since the late 1990s has fallen from 36 per cent of Australian output to just over 20 per cent.

For Sydney to keep up with demand for new housing requires 25,000-50,000 new homes each year (but the current NSW government is 25,000 s what gives?).

Why is  this happening ?  Well ... the study says it’s for a lot of reasons including – 

• Natural geographical constraints to a lack of public infrastructure, especially transport
• Local government agencies favour restrictive land use plans often in response to concern from residents their suburbs would become too large
• The planning system is full of vague and ill-defined statements and prone to subjective, uncertain and hard to predict planning decisions

Interestingly, the study says Sydney's population will inevitably increase unless the government chooses to contain it by allowing house prices to climb to unaffordable levels or congestion to steadily worsen.

The study finds local government councils are preventing the apartment development that cities with Sydney's geography and infrastructure clearly need.  So, given government policy is to meet demand for housing, the report says, the only option will be to develop land more intensively by ''building higher and building more cleverly in established areas''.

Sounds like more strata to me … provided we can get them approved by local council and state government.

Francesco …