NSW real estate: Prime Minister blames council red tape for property crisis

MALCOLM Turnbull blames NSW councils for Sydney’s rocketing house prices because they drag their heels on approving development applications.

PM Malcolm Turnbull: “We need to build more dwellings. The answer has been very clear for a long time.” John Feder/The Australian.

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MALCOLM Turnbull blames NSW councils for Sydney’s rocketing house prices because they take too long to approve development applications.

The Prime Minister said Sydney councils were now taking three times longer than Brisbane to pass DAs. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister said stamp duty concessions would help get more people into the market — but it wouldn’t solve the problem on its own.

His intervention comes as developers say they are resorting to legal action over simple approvals.

Work continues at Jordan Springs, a housing estate on the fringes of Penrith.

There are 742 cases relating to council DAs in the Land and Environment Court this year alone — up 469 cases on two years ago. “We need to build more dwellings. The answer has been very clear for a long time,” Mr Turnbull said.

“The biggest constraint is planning laws. The cities that have better planning laws in the sense that developers can get approvals more quickly, so they’re not delayed, have more affordable housing.

“We’re not asking people to compromise on planning standards, but it shouldn’t take you 18 months to get a DA if in other cities it can take you six months. It takes you less time to get a DA in Brisbane than it does in Sydney. That’s why housing is more affordable in Brisbane than it is in Sydney.”

Property Council NSW executive director Jane Fitzgerald said Sydney’s DA system was one of the “worst in the world”.

The average DA is now taking councils an average 87 days to determine, figures show.

“We’ve just hit the biggest building approval rate in NSW for 42 years, but the problem is that about half of approvals don’t actually get built,” he said.

Frasers Property residential general manager Nigel Edgar said the Queensland planning and council system made developments faster and cheaper. “Queensland’s system is up to date with the modern world, whereas NSW is still really operating in the 1970s,” he said.

McCloy Group chairman Jeff McCloy, who has also worked in both NSW and Queensland, said a simple house development that would be approved within days in Brisbane could take up to three months in NSW.

Fairfield, Woollahra, Hawkesbury and Canada Bay councils are the state’s slowest at signing off on DAs, taking more than 100 days.

Department of Planning statistics show the average DA is now taking councils an average 87 days to determine.

But a spokeswoman for the Local Government of NSW hit back at claims councils were to blame for Sydney’s affordability crisis.

“If property developers were genuinely concerned about housing affordability they could always reduce their enormous profits by including more affordable housing in their developments,” she said.

“Instead they’ve been spending their energy lobbying against mandatory affordable housing targets.”

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