THE Minns government has unveiled a $2.2 billion housing plan at the centre of its first budget after winning the NSW election, which includes more support for social and affordable accommodation.
Premier Chris Minns said this budget recognises housing as essential infrastructure and the plan will begin to address the historic neglect of new housing supply.
The $2.2 billion Housing and Infrastructure Plan includes $300 million reinvested in Landcom to accelerate the construction of thousands of new homes, with 30% of these to be affordable housing; $400 million in Restart NSW to deliver the infrastructure that will unlock housing and $1.5 billion committed for housing related infrastructure through the Housing and Productivity Contribution.
The government will establish Homes NSW to deliver more affordable and social housing and reduce the number of homeless people, along with a $224 million investment to support the government’s Essential Housing Package.
In addition, the federal government’s $610 million Social Housing Accelerator program, which started with its first project this week, will permanently increase social housing by around 1500 dwellings.
The premier said this budget provides a foundation for a better and more secure future for NSW.
“After 12 years of neglect, the Minns Labor Government is working to provide relief now while putting in the proper planning to ensure we’re ready for the challenges of the future.
“We are a government with a clear focus – managing our finances responsibly so we can provide support when you need it most and improve the essential services that we all rely on, now and into the future,” said the premier.
The budget also promises further investment to improve planning through the $38.7 million Faster Planning Program, which includes $24 million for the NSW Building Commission to protect home buyers from substandard buildings and $9.1 million to assess housing supply opportunities across government-owned sites, including for new social housing.
The Property Council NSW executive director Katie Stevenson said the budget sets the foundations for the government to tackle the state’s housing supply and affordability crisis.
“We welcome the focus on leveraging government land and delivering housing to those in greatest need in our communities.
“Landcom and LAHC are major beneficiaries in this Budget, resourcing them to upscale the delivery of affordable and social homes across the state, including in our regions. Industry will be pleased to see a focus on improving planning system efficiency through the Faster Planning Program, including assessing housing supply opportunities across government-owned sites and $5.6 million for an Artificial Intelligence pilot to deliver planning system efficiency.
“Increased funding for social and affordable housing and investigating the use of Artificial Intelligence to make the planning system more efficient were key reform asks from our recent Housing Outcomes report, so we particularly welcome their inclusion as part of the government’s first budget,” she added.
UDIA NSW CEO Steve Mann said the planning reforms are a positive step, however, with a long list of projects stalled in the planning system for years, the enlarged Department of Planning needs to maintains a laser-like focus on deploying these new resources where they are needed most – to fast track development assessments, and support better coordination and delivery of enabling infrastructure such as water, power, sewer and roads.
“UDIA was encouraged to see that the government is also directly investing in the delivery of housing through the $224m Essential Housing Package which will support social and affordable housing and making a $300m investment through Landcom to accelerate the construction of over 4,500 new homes by 2039.
“Landcom has a strong record of supporting housing delivery and as this investment shows, we have a monumental challenge ahead to meet the NSW Housing Accord Target of 378,000 new homes in five years.” Mann said.
The Urban Taskforce’s CEO Tom Forrest said all eyes will now be on Planning Minister Scully and the long-anticipated suite of planning reforms.
“Without these, the budget result will be at risk.
“There is no new incentive in this budget for the private sector to increase housing supply. The private sector delivers over 95% of the new housing (both rental and homes for sale). The disproportionate focus on social and affordable housing is a symptom of the government throwing band-aids on the housing supply crisis rather than taking bold steps to solve the problem.
“Increasing housing supply will serve the dual purpose of providing more homes to accommodate the growing population, placing downward pressure on rental prices and well as the cost of new homes,” he added.
“Confidence is at a low ebb at present, but there is optimism the planning reforms needed to deliver the forecast budget result as well as the associated boost in housing supply will come very soon,” Forrest said.
