Empty dwellings at Pendle Hill, Bonds site, Wentworthville remain untouched

Thousands of homes across western Sydney remain vacant while a housing crisis grips the city and one neighbourhood alone has hundreds of empty homes – illustrating a ‘depressing’ problem.

More than 60 units are waiting to be occupied at the Huntley development at Pendle Hill.

Thousands of potential homes across Sydney remain dormant while a housing crisis grips the city and one neighbourhood alone has hundreds of vacant homes while thousands are waiting to be developed.

At Pendle Hill, a development called the Huntley – developed by the collapsed company Dyldam – appears ready but while construction on the six-storey, 66-apartment block at 14 Civic Ave wrapped up at least two years ago, units have remained empty.

Dyldam group was placed into administration in 2022.

At a recent Cumberland Council meeting following a discussion about affordable housing, Mayor Lisa Lake highlighted another problem.

“Not only do we have a concern with building affordable homes but we have a concern with building market-rate homes too,’’ she said.

“If you have a look at some of the rezoning we’ve done in Cumberland in recent years, I can think of central Wentworthville as one area where there’s been significant rezoning to try and encourage development.

“Pendle Hill – the old Bonds site as well – we haven’t seen any activation at all in those areas and this is our problem.

Cumberland Mayor Lisa Lake at the revamped Civic Park in the centre of Pendle Hill.

“This is our wicked problem.’’

One of NSW’s key housing projects – the 1500-apartment redevelopment of the Bonds site at nearby Dunmore St, where a full-line supermarket is also planned – has stalled 14 years after the factory ceased.

Moxham Commercial group did not sell the vast site in November, meaning 6000sq m of retail space including a full-line supermarket, a public plaza and unit blocks up to 12 storeys have failed to come to fruition.

Dyldam owns 80 per cent of the site that was the birthplace of Australia’s first cotton spinning operation, while property investor Tony Merhi owns the remainder.

The former Bonds site at Pendle Hill has not been used since 2010.

Cr Lake said despite the years it took for the council to rezone the site for up to 1500 apartments, there was no fresh application for it to assess.

“It’s right in the centre of Pendle Hill. It’s the central part of Pendle Hill that … sets the character and tone for the neighbourhood and it’s depressing that it’s not being used for the community,’’ she said.

Also on Dunmore St in neighbouring Wentworthville, what was once a flourishing shopping mall and strip of shops has been vacant for at least five years because of another delayed redevelopment.

Towers at proposed Wentworthville Mall redevelopment.

In 2019, Austino Group sold Wentworthville Mall to property developer Poly Australia, which had plans to build 480 apartments, restaurants and a full-line supermarket at Dunmore St.

However, seven years since the mall’s anchor tenant IGA supermarket shut, it is now on the market again as a buyer is sought.

“People tell me that it’s an area in transition but geez it’s a long transition,’’ Cr Lake said.

At Greystanes, a three-storey unit block on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Ettalong Rd has been boarded up for several years after its owner died.

There are more than 43,000 vacant homes across Sydney and 22,000 unoccupied dwellings in Greater Sydney.

Prospect state Labor MP Hugh McDermott said infrastructure was ready to support new residents.

“We need the housing in western Sydney,’’ he said.

“We want these properties to go ahead and families to move into them. We have the social infrastructure to support our current investment – the transport, health and schools – and we need to be these properties to be up and going to take more families in our community.’’

Originally published as Empty dwellings at Pendle Hill, Bonds site, Wentworthville remain untouched