Housing Now! Alliance, Planning Minister Paul Scully at forum in Parramatta

A minister has conceded paying off a home before retirement is ‘as probable as a journey to Mars’ at a housing affordability forum where he also addressed the proposed sale of Rosehill Racecourse and heritage challenges in Parramatta.

Planning Minister Paul Scully at a housing affordability forum for Housing Now! Alliance at Parramatta Square.

Planning Minister Paul Scully conceded paying off a family home is “as probable as a journey to Mars’ at a housing affordability forum where he also addressed the planned sale of Rosehill Racecourse to make way for 25,000 homes – just hours before a parliamentary inquiry into the proposal began.

At the forum at Parramatta Square on Monday, Housing Now! Alliance chair and Business Western Sydney executive director David Borger highlighted his support to sell the racecourse and convert it into a mini city.

Mr Borger, who is due to speak at the first day of the inquiry on Monday, asked the minister if Rosehill Racecourse should be rezoned if the government had already decided its best use should be high density housing.

Mr Scully called for the Liberals to treat it as a bipartisan challenge.

“I think it’s just time, rather than the opposition pretending they’re supportive of housing – and then putting more asterisks against the end of that sentence than there are stars in the Milky Way – that ... they actually take this as a bipartisan challenge,’’ he said.

Business Western Sydney executive director and Housing Now! Alliance chair David Borger with Planning Minister Paul Scully at a housing affordability forum for Housing Now! Alliance at Parramatta Square.

“The opposition are either in genuine support of more housing or they’re not and at the moment all I can see is not.’’

Mr Borger also cited a massive proposal to build more than 370 apartments on a 8921sq m parcel of land at the corner of O’Connell and Albert streets in North Parramatta over three blocks – with the tallest tower to reach 22 storeys.

The plans have drawn controversy from heritage advocates and Parramatta federal Labor MP Andrew Charlton because of the proximity to the Parramatta Female Factory because they fear it would jeopardise the potential World Heritage listing for the factory, which is more than 200 years old.

However, Mr Borger said while “everyone wanted to see it preserved” it had ample opportunity for housing particularly with the light rail next door and university at its doorstep.

Mr Scully said development could be achieved while respecting heritage.

“ … We’ve got some good heritage assets that we should be mindful of but in 2024 I think there’s ways that communities collectively can walk and chew gum at the same time,’’ he said.

“There’s ways that we can sympathetically achieve both.’’

Artist's impression of a proposed apartment complex for 31 O’Connell St and 9 Albert St North Parramatta, near the Parramatta Female Factory.

The planning proposal is on the agenda of the Parramatta Council meeting on Monday night but the state government will ultimately determine the project.

Mr Scully also called for candidates ahead of the September local government elections to be open to solving the housing crisis.

“My advice to candidates who are running is ‘understand your communities’,’’ he said.

“I don’t think anyone wants their communities to be some large scale retirement area where young people can’t stand in there.’’

“If you love your community, why wouldn’t you want others to join in and love it too,’’ he said.

At the forum, the alliance called for a string of measures including a housing co-ordinator general and a “clear road map” for transport-oriented development housing targets, to reduce red tape for affordable housing and rezone places of worship.

Rosehill Racecourse could be sold to create 25,000 homes. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Dermographia International Housing Affordability data shows for 15 of the past 16 surveys, Sydney ranked in the top three of the least affordable cities in the world.

“Not a ranking that we should be proud of,’’ Mr Scully said before pointing to the “not new” but sobering facts.

“The median cost of buying a home in Sydney is now almost 14 times higher than the average salary and the cost of servicing a 30-year mortgage is almost 30 per cent of disposable income,’’ he said.

“That’s the highest it’s been since 1991, not long after the peak of interest rates of 17 per cent in August 1990.’’

He said the aim to have your family home paid off before retirement was a long shot.

“Now that journey seems to be as probable as a journey to Mars these days for many young people but it shouldn’t be,’’ he said.

He said over the past financial year, more than 34,000 residents left NSW for other states, with housing costs one of the reasons for their departure.