Andrew wants to help the housing crisis. Two trees are holding him back

When Andrew Ireland and his wife found an idyllic Peter Hall-designed mid-century house among the gumtrees on Sydney’s northern beaches, they were won over by the property’s added bonus – the oversized Bayview block had room to build a tiny house.

Ireland quickly decided that a 90 square metre house on their new property would be an ideal rental prospect, a small contribution to the housing supply crisis sweeping Sydney.

Andrew Ireland has a block large enough to build a tiny house but exorbitant costs are standing in his way.Credit: Steven Siewert

But red tape looks like strangling his dream. He was told the removal of two of the 60 trees on his block would cost him a whopping $55,000 in biodiversity offsets – 10 per cent of the total build of the tiny house.

Ireland said he was prepared to incur costs related to his small-scale development but was shocked when he received the quote from the state government’s biodiversity conservation fund.

The biodiversity fund was established under the former government to encourage “landholders across NSW to participate in private land conservation”.

Ireland said the bush surroundings of the property were its drawcard, and he wanted to ensure it retained its leafy outlook, but high charges for small-scale builds would be a disincentive to would-be developers who wanted to help ease the dire shortage of homes.

An artist’s impression of the house Andrew Ireland wants to build on his Bayview block.Credit: Blue Sky Building Designs

“The government claims it wants to free up and encourage the building of new housing, yet at the same time, wittingly or unwittingly, imposes unrealistic and unjustified charges on our attempt to do so,” Ireland said.

NSW has ambitious targets to build more than 75,000 homes a year for the next five years to meet its obligations under the National Housing Accord. However, with building rates languishing in NSW below 43,000 per year, the state is on track to fall well short of its targets.

The offsets Ireland has to pay cover two trees – a common turpentine and a southern mahogany, which he says has been classified by an arborist as dying. Ireland had agreed to replace the trees like for like as part of his development application with Northern Beaches Council.

The tiny house Ireland hopes to build will complement the main residence, Bowie House, which was designed by Hall after he took over from Jorn Utzon on the Opera House project.

However, Ireland says the high offset costs will probably mean he and his wife have to hit pause on the tiny house and instead focus on upgrades to their house, which has had only two owners before them.

“This will inevitably also mean one less rental property in the market,” Ireland said.

A Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokesman said Ireland’s development would affect 2700 square metres of an “endangered ecological community”.

“The NSW government is committed to delivering both the housing needed as well as protecting and restoring the environment,” the spokesman said.

“The government has committed to striking a better balance between cost and biodiversity loss for low-impact local developments. The NSW government will soon commence consultation on options for change.”

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