Project Sydney: Why 1900s-style terraces can fix NSW’s housing crisis

EXCLUSIVE: THE answer to Sydney’s housing crisis is to take a step back in time, Planning Minister Rob Stokes said. It’s time “missing middle” renaissance .

Terrace houses were blamed for poverty, overcrowding, crime and even the bubonic plague outbreak of 1900. But now the government says it’s time for a renaissance of the “missing middle”.

THE answer to Sydney’s housing crisis is to take a step back in time, Planning Minister Rob Stokes said.

The terrace house was maligned for most of the 20th century as Sydney embraced Federation architecture and the mushrooming outer ring suburbs gave birth to the quarter-acre dream.

Terrace houses were blamed for poverty, overcrowding, crime and even the bubonic plague outbreak of 1900. But now the government says it’s time for a renaissance of the “missing middle”.

“There’s the capacity for 280,000 new medium-density dwellings in Sydney under current zoning but it’s not happening because there are barriers from council regulation,” Mr Stokes said.

“We want to unlock that.”

According to modelling done by the Grattan Institute, one in four home buyers cite quality semi-detached as their housing preference.

And one in five prefer apartment living.

But only 10 per cent of stock now being built is low-rise medium-density. Thirty-four per cent is high rise and 38 per cent is freestanding.

Rob Stokes, NSW Minister for Planning / Picture: Justin Lloyd

“There has been strong resistance to medium density of any type from some councils, yet many of the most desirable parts of Sydney are where the terraces sit, so we know this type of housing works,” Mr Stokes said.

“We want more people to live in this type of housing and we need to address this policy gap, so we can provide families with more choice and more affordable housing.”

Fairwater in Blacktown is one of several new estates focusing on terrace-style housing, completed over the past 12 months across a 39ha footprint.

Had the development gone down the usual freestanding path, there would have been just 12 homes built per hectare, instead of the existing 40 terraces per hectare.

When it comes to cramming an extra 2.1 million residents into Sydney over the next 20 years, the terrace ticks boxes for economical use of land andaffordability.

Prices for the Frasers Property-developed terrace community start at around $600,000 for a two-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home. That’s about the same price as a new two-bedroom unit in Blacktown.

The costliest is a four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom terrace with two living areas and a separate self-contained studio over the garage.

Yet step inside one and it looks no different from a contemporary renovation of a Victorian terrace in Paddington.

The state government is in the final stages of drafting a Medium Density Design Guide and a Medium Density Housing Code that will be exhibited for public comment within coming weeks.

LOVING AN AFFORDABLE LIFE

Lauren Penn and her daughter Savannah, 6, at their brand new townhouse, in Potts Hill / Picture: Justin Lloyd

ONE year ago Lauren Penn and her six-year-old daughter Savannah were renting a run-down 100-year-old two-bedroom unit in Belmore.

There was no security on the windows, the interior paint was flaking and most of the light fixtures were broken. Eight people were living in the flat next door.

Ms Penn was paying $350 rent each week.

Today the family calls a brand new two-bedroom townhouse in Potts Hill, west of Chullora, home.

And Ms Penn is paying $10 less a week rent than she was in Belmore.

“Before I moved here I had never heard of Potts Hill,” she said.

“We’ve been here almost a year now, I know all my neighbours, the park is one block over, my daughter can play with other kids and it definitely feels safer. I live in a nice house and still have the ability to save money to buy my own home. I’d love to buy in Potts Hill.”

Link Housing has recently completed 32 new affordable homes in Potts Hill — two and a half years ahead of schedule. But Link is one of just 16 community housing providers in the Sydney region, supplying about 20,000 homes for low-income workers. NSW Federation of Housing Associations chief Wendy Hayhurst said it met just one-fifth of the state’s needs.

“To maintain the amount of social and affordable housing as a proportion of what there is now, in the next 20 years we need to build 100,000 dwellings,” she said.

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