Leppington: Developers, builders forecast housing crisis as NSW Planning sit on 2500 lots
Developers have made a desperate plea to the NSW Government to finalise $4 billion plans for 2500 homes, sat on since 2018, as fears a housing crisis will see thousands priced out of the market.
NSW
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The biggest names in the housing industry have condemned the NSW’s Government’s inaction over land release in Sydney’s Southwest — which has forced desperate first home buyers to camp out to compete for limited land left on the market.
A total of 30 building companies including the likes of Metricon, Mcdonald Jones, Practical Homes and Kaplan have called on the NSW Government to finalise 2500 homes proposed for the Leppington Priority Precinct.
Blueprints for the up-coming suburb were completed three years ago, but never approved by the Planning Department.
The long list of property developers, builders and tradies have foreshadowed a housing supply and affordability crisis in the southwest as land supply stalls and prices skyrocket.
In a desperate plea to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Planning Minister Rob Stokes, Crownland Developments, representing the Leppington Living consortium, wrote to the NSW Government to address the state’s ballooning affordability crisis.
“Years of rezoning inaction by the NSW Planning Department, coupled with high demand, means land supply is about to run out,” Crownland Developments’ general manager Phil Scott said. “This will have dire consequences on housing affordability and will shut down important economic and employment engines of the state.”
Mr Scott said the 2500 homes — slated for rezoning in the Leppington Priority Precinct since 2018 — would employ more than 10,000 tradespeople and generate a $3.9 billion economic injection into the city’s southwest.
However, blueprints for the precinct stalled after the NSW Planning Department requested revised green-space plans from Camden Council.
Crownland principal Andrew Wiesener told The Daily Telegraph land prices in the southwest had increased by 45 per cent in six months as land supply dries up, meaning “first home buyers are forced to incredible lengths to secure land”.
“The reality of the situation is the demand is all focused here in Leppington, but the supply is not,” he said. “The frustrating thing for us and the community is the government has invested an enormous amount of taxpayer money providing infrastructure for these priority precincts including heavy rail, upgrades to Camden Valley Way and Bringelly Rd.
“You can walk down the road and get on a train, but you can’t buy a block of land.”
Mr Wiesener said it “defies logic” that plans in a NSW Planning Department priority precinct had stalled for three years: “particularly when all the services are in place”.
“If the government is serious about averting a crisis, and creating affordability, Leppington is ready to go,” he said. “If they rezone the area in the next few months, there’d be houses where I am standing in 12 months.
“We are seeing buyers having to camp out, some for days on end, when land is released — this level of competition isn’t right when the land is ready to be singed off.”
However, the “collaborative planning” for the Leppington Priority Precinct, which would see Camden Council made to make a decision on the site, could result in the planned precinct taken back to the drawing board and, at least, a further two-year delay on new homes being built.
Metricon NSW general manager Patrick Eather said the Sydney Basin was one of the slowest regions to release land in the country.
“Based on last year’s statistics, Sydney ranks fourth in the country for land release,” he said.
“We build homes for people to live in, so it is disappointing.
“When you look at the Federal Government’s Homebuilder initiative, NSW was the lowest take up in the country — driven by the expense of land on one hand and the lack of land on the other.”
Mr Eather said developers have banned together in a point of “chronic frustration” against the NSW Government.
“We are joining forces as an industry to make sure our voices are heard,” he said.
The plea from the property industry comes as Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the state was “going to need a lot more homes” as part of the release of the NSW Productivity Commission’s White Paper last week.
The report called for a review of unmet housing demand and the state’s capacity for growth into the future.
Last year, Camden Council unveiled its Local Strategic Planning Strategy, which forecasts a need for “new homes, jobs and services for an additional 140,000 people” by 2040.
Meanwhile the Greater Sydney Commission’s Western City District Plan set a housing supply target for the Camden LGA of 11,800 new homes over the next five years.
The fearful developers are calling on the NSW Government to urgently rezone the two completed plans for stages two and five of the Leppington Priority Precinct, while revising plans for stages three and four to accommodate increases in open space.
A NSW Planning spokeswoman said the department was “committed to delivering communities that are well-supported with a diverse range of housing options, jobs, infrastructure and public space”.
“Progressing plans at Leppington is dependent on ensuring future residents have enough access to public open space” she said. “We provided funding to Camden Council in 2019/20 to undertake an independent open space study for Leppington Stages 2 and 5, to address a deficit identified.
“This study is being finalised and, once completed, we will work with the council to decide the best way forward to complete the rezoning of the area.
“Throughout this process, the department and council have kept landowners and stakeholders informed.”
FIRST HOME BUYERS AFRAID THEY’LL NEVER GET INTO THE MARKET
First home buyer Bianca Dunn has been on the hunt for a block of land to call her own for the past three years, but still hasn’t been able to buy.
The 22-year-old, currently living in Cobbity, said searching for her first home has become a “part-time job” as she is repeatedly priced out of the skyrocketing southwest Sydney housing market.
“I am worried now that I am too late to the game and I will never be able to secure a block of land,” she said. “My parents are worried that I am never going to be able to move out of home because I am never going to be able to afford to build.”
Ms Dunn said she has been outbid on four properties and is in search for an established home or a block of land to build on: “basically anything that I can secure myself”.
“It is very scary when I know that I am competing against people who are already in the market and who know what they are looking for,” she said.
“I am very lucky I have worked full-time since leaving high school, but some of my friends who went to university are now behind on the game when it comes to being able to afford a block of land.”
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Samuel Raco, of Kemps Creek, said he was determined to getting into the housing market straight out of high school.
After two years searching, he has purchased a lot in the city’s southwest.
“It was a lot of early mornings, contacting developers and getting my hopes up when they tell me they have a lot available, only to be told it isn’t when I get the paperwork back to them,” he said. “I have seen a $100,000 increase in similar lots while I have been searching over the past two years.”
TRADIES, BUILDERS IN THE FIRING LINE
A massive $60 million worth of display homes are currently under construction in the Leppington Priority Precinct — but the village will be rendered useless as the NSW Government stall on plans to rezone lots for housing.
Representatives of Southwest Sydney building companies in the precinct are fearful thousands of tradespeople, sales staff and consultants will be forced out of work as available land disappears.
56-year building construction veteran Barry Dickinson of Dickinson Homes said he has “never seen a housing crisis of this scale” in all his time in the industry.
“When it comes to the availability of land, this is without doubt the worst I have ever seen,” Mr Dickinson told The Daily Telegraph. “As a grandfather of 15 kids, I find it frightening as to where they are going to be able to afford homes.
“The level of demand is only brought on by the fact that there is no land available — it could take up to three or four years to address this issue and the problem will only grow.”
First Style Homes chief executive Romeo Tamburri, who has been in the industry for 30 years said the level of supply for ready-zoned land for people to build their homes on was “just non-existent”.
“There is a real danger of the building industry — especially in the southwest — actually faltering and not having enough activity for trades to continue,” Mr Tamburri said.
While Kaplan Homes boss Andrew Knatli said thousands of contractors in the Leppington would lose their jobs without government intervention.
“Staff are asking us daily if we are seeing an increase in stock,” He said. “They are nervous, this impacts a lot of lives.”
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