THE NSW state and local governments are being urged to take a leaf out of the Queensland book and fast-track approvals for apartment developments that offer 10% or more social and affordable housing.
The recommendation is one of 29 to emerge from Australian Apartment Advocacy (AAA)’s recent think tank, Sustain Sydney 2035, which saw 90 delegates that included developers, builders, owners, strata managers, architects, planners, government representatives, community housing providers and general suppliers.
“We need incentives for investment in social housing, funding for providers and action now to ensure that project approvals are fast-tracked,” AAA CEO Samantha Reece said.
“NSW and Sydney are in the midst of an affordability crisis.”
PropTrack data shows vacancies in Sydney sit at just 1.68%, PropTrack data shows.
The NSW government needed to help deliver sustainable, inclusive and innovative housing developments that prioritised social and affordable homes in order to meet its commitment to deliver 377,000 more homes by 2029, it found.
“It was evident from the think tank that NSW needs to take a leaf out of Queensland’s books and provide planning approvals within 10 days for those projects that deliver affordable housing, especially when you consider the current shortfall in the market.
“To date the government has focused on the development sector to deliver the 6% of housing stock that is missing from the affordable allocation, but these companies are focused on profit and hence fast-tracking approvals would incentivise a concerted effort on this much needed area.”
NSW has a social housing waitlist of around 57,700 people, according to the state government.
Recommendations included incentives and investment for providers of social housing with tax breaks and other stimulus; government funding or underwriting for affordable housing models such as community land trusts; fast tracking approvals, funding and grants, for innovative building methods; and the creation of an alternative construction hub funded by government.
The government should work with church landholders on alternative housing models, it also said, and should rezone underused and derelict land to provide key worker and social housing.
The think tank also found while NSW was “leading the nation” on stymying building defects, it was taking too long to manage complaints against strata and building managers.
AAA called on the state government to properly fund the Stata and Property Services Commissioner’s office for timely resolution of strata manager complaints, especially in light of recent media attention on SCA members such as Netstrata.
The NSW government in May announced an enquiry into Netstrata, one of the Australia’s biggest strata management companies, following allegations on ABC’s 7.30 that it was charging apartment owners insurance brokerage fees up to three times normal rates, and was taking kickbacks from contractors and suppliers.
Reece also said politics needed to be taken out of housing supply, with an independent body to create a 30-year plan identifying areas for residential building and delivering supporting infrastructure in order to decentralise Sydney’s population.
To encourage innovation in building materials and methods, the think tank suggested the state government needs to enable payment for early contractor involvement in residential construction and fund an innovative housing hub.
