Public land sale: What has been sold by the NSW Government in my council area

The NSW government sold off $627 million in public land to private ownership in the past year and billions more since it came to power. Find out how the sell-off has impacted your region.

More than $620 million of publicly-owned NSW land has been sold off to private ownership in a single year.

Western Sydney suburbs such as Parramatta and Liverpool, as well as major regional hubs like Wollongong, have borne the brunt of the sell-off which is being referred to by the opposition as “Poles and Wires 2.0”.

NewsLocal has obtained Government Property Register documents that reveal which local government areas had the most amount of land sold in the 2019-20 financial year.

The reports, which were handed over to the Upper House following questions by Labor MLC Courtney Houssos, also revealed the NSW Government had sold off $23 billion worth of public land since it came to power in 2011.

$151.1 million in public land was sold off in Parramatta during the last financial year.

When it comes to sales in the last financial year, the geographical heart of Greater Sydney, the Parramatta Local Government Area, experienced the highest value sell-off with sakes nettng the NSW Government $151.1 million.

Sydney’s fastest growing region, Campbelltown, lost $81.9 million worth of public land to private ownership during the same period.

Canterbury-Bankstown residents had $36 million in taxpayer-owned land sold off, while $35.4 million worth of land was sold in The Hills.

The government made $30.8 million on land sold off in Liverpool, with the regional hub of Wollongong seeing $22.9 million worth of land pass into private ownership.

Liverpool saw more than $30 million in public land sold off. Picture, Sam Ruttyn

In Fairfield, documents revealed $21.1 million in public land was sold, while in Sydney’s upper north shore, the Ku-ring-gai Local Government Area, a total of $20.5 million worth of land was soldto private ownership.

The northern beaches rounded out the top 10 with $20.5 million through 2019/20.

Property Minister Melinda Pavey told NewsLocal the NSW Government owned about $168.5 billion in property assets as of the end of the last financial year.

“The Government regularly recycles assets to fund its significant infrastructure program to support frontline service delivery,” Ms Pavey said.

“Under-utilised property is an unnecessary financial burden on the state and rather than holding it and having to invest taxpayer money in maintaining it, we can sell the properties and reinvest the money into better uses.”

Property Minister Melinda Pavey. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Since the government came to power in 2011, the NSW Land and Housing Corporation sold $6.628 billion in property to private ownership.

Other major sell-offs include property owned by Landcom ($4.767billion), the NSW Planning Department($3 billion), Property NSW ($1.2 billion) and $1.393 billion from the Sydney Olympic Park Authority.

Ms Pavey said assets owned by Land and Housing were recycled to build new social housing and undergo maintenance upgrades in other properties.

The sale of the Sirius Building was pooled into a $611 million fund.

The NSW Government sold 340 public housing dwellings in Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks — including the historic Sirius Building — for $611.5 million.

Ms Pavey said the sale of those properties would result in the construction of 1785 new homes

“That’s five new homes being built for every one property that is sold,” she said.

Shadow Western Sydney spokesman Greg Warren said it was “no surprise” that Sydney’s west had suffered the most public land sales last year.

He said it was ““Poles and Wires 2.0” and called for restrictions to be put in place to ensure funds from a sale are reinvested back into the same local government area.

Member for Campbelltown Greg Warren. Picture: Joel Carrett

“Gladys and her government treat western Sydney like a fire sale while reaping millions out of us and then short-changing the community with the support they need to thrive,” Mr Warren said. “This is another instalment of the great Sydney rip-off by Gladys and her government.”

“There is severe injury to insult when they rip money out of community through the sale of public assets for infrastructure projects out of area that then blow their budget by millions.”