New housing body green-lit 6800 homes in two hours

Eleven massive housing projects to create 6800 new homes have been green-lit after just two hours of the first meeting of the Minns government’s new housing delivery body.

Eleven massive housing projects to create 6800 new homes have been green-lit after just two hours of the first meeting of the Minns government’s new housing delivery body.

The Housing Delivery Authority (HDA), ruled by three of the state’s top public servants, rubber-stamped the projects, all of which are based in Sydney, as State Significant Developments in their first meeting two weeks ago.

The Daily Telegraph revealed the introduction of the new three-person body in November after the Minns government empowered the body to approve large housing developments worth more than $60m in Sydney and $30m in the bush, in an effort to fix the state’s crippling housing crisis by fast-tracking large developments.

Eleven massive housing projects to create 6400 new homes have been green lit after just two hours of the first meeting of the Minns government’s new housing delivery body. Picture: NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

The HDA received more than 160 expressions of interest since applications opened more than a month ago, with the panel assessing the first 28 proposals in just two hours. Of the 28, eleven have been declared state significant projects, which means they will bypass the need for councils to approve them, but will still be subject to further approvals from the Planning Department. Eight of the applications were rejected due to not meeting the criteria of well-located, quality, affordable housing. The other nine will require either further monitoring or more information.

The authority, which includes Premier’s Department Secretary Simon Draper, Planning boss Kiersten Fishburn, and Infrastructure NSW CEO Tom Gellibrand will continue to meet every fortnight to assess the remaining applications.

The largest housing project green lit is a 2020-dwelling mixed-use development in Rhodes, which will also provide affordable housing.

Premier Chris Minns and Planning Minister Paul Scully. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

The next largest was a 1400-dwelling residential apartment building in Canada Bay.

Premier Chris Minns said the new housing authority was already proving to be faster for approving new homes.

Other green lit proposals included a 600-dwelling build-to-rent and affordable housing complex on Bourke St in Waterloo and a 500-dwelling development at Westmead.

“This new authority that is fast tracking the approval of new homes is a major but necessary change to cut through the red tape and delays that have haunted the NSW planning system for well over a decade,” he said.

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the authority did not just consider new projects, but also allowed for existing proposals to receive “fast track consideration” from the state rather than local councils.

Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest welcomed the “rapid” speed with which the first projects were assessed by the new housing body.

“The huge support for this new process highlights just how cumbersome the planning framework had become,” he said.

“Investors, financiers, developers and builders had been sitting on this massive number of development opportunities, just waiting for a planning system that could give them a chance.”