Decision on thousands of new homes on NSW Government-owned land could be made next month

More than 5000 government-owned parcels of land assessed for use as housing across NSW.

A decision which will result in homes being built on thousands of government-owned chunks of land could be made as soon as next month, in a move which could result in thousands of new homes being built around Sydney.

The NSW Government has completed the first tranche of its audit on land it owns, with a focus on finding underused and neglected parcels which could be developed.

The government has so far assessed more than 5000 locations for potential development.

While Lands Minister Steve Kamper said a decision on which sites would be used for housing would be made in the coming months, The Daily Telegraph understands funding to unlock some of the sites could potentially be contained in the state budget to be handed down in June.

An artist’s impressions of Arncliffe Central, which is currently being built.

“The first tranche of the land audit has assessed over 5,000 surplus land holdings with the potential for thousands of dwellings to be delivered,” Mr Kamper said.

“I have been a vocal supporter of using surplus Government land to deliver the housing that our state needs.

“The Government will outline further details of the land audit’s findings over the coming months.”

Agreements allowing development on government-owned land are already set to yield almost 1300 new homes on three sites following a series of deals with heavyweight developer Billbergia, worth $1.3 billion.

Building on government land allowed the developers to hike up the amount of social and affordable housing in mixed-tenure developments, Rick Graf, development director at Billbergia, told The Telegraph.

“We can’t do it on private land, the economics don’t work – that’s why affordable housing targets in other places are so modest,” Mr Graf said.

The development at Arncliffe will include a new park. Photo: Supplied

He urged the government to unlock more unused government land for development.

“If you bring government land into play, you can kick enormous goals,” he said.

He cited their recently-completed builds – including the 376-home Lidcombe Rise (41 per cent social and affordable housing) and their 150-home West Ryde build The Parade (20 per cent social housing) – as key examples.

Billbergia has also started work on Arncliffe Central, which will yield 804-homes split across four towers, after demolishing decrepit old social housing used for emergency accommodation during the Covid pandemic.

That development will include 75 per cent of homes deemed social, affordable or essential worker housing, with 196 new social housing homes alongside 202 private homes.

“This government land is key to 10 or 20 more projects like this,” Mr Graf said.

Housing Minister Rose Jackson backed mixed tenure housing as the way forward for social housing.

“I reject the old broken system of concentrating poor and disadvantaged people in big towers and estates,” she said.

“It doesn’t work and it puts vulnerable people further out of reach of improving their quality of life, often it was done to shunt people off to the side so they could be ignored, whereas mixed tenure communities bring people together.”

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