How a prime piece of inner west Sydney land will be transformed

A concrete slab on Parramatta Road set to be transformed into apartment buildings will now include more units for essential workers, a new masterplan reveals.

The Joinery, Annandale, will be built on a WestConnex site, formerly used to facilitate the construction of tunnels, a stone’s throw from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

An artist’s impression of The Joinery, which will include 577 homes, 220 of which will be set aside for essential workers. Credit: Landcom

The government-owned land will be developed into about 577 new homes, 220 of which will be set aside for essential workers – an extra 20 homes than previously announced.

Workers – including nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters – will be offered the build-to-rent units at a discounted rate. The development will also include ground-floor retail space and new pedestrian links between Parramatta and Pyrmont Bridge roads.

Construction is slated to begin in 2026 and the first residents to move in by 2028.

The extra homes will be particularly important for housing young people, Premier Chris Minns said on Monday.

An artist’s impression of The Joinery, which will include 220 essential worker rentals. Credit: Landcom

“Most of the challenges that we face in our economy at the moment involve access to housing, whether it’s industrial disputes that we have with unions in the state – and that’s because union members and their leadership understandably are saying to the government, we are currently having to pay massive rent and massive mortgages to live and work in the city,” Minns said.

Landcom, the government’s developer, is proposing to rezone the land to allow building heights up to 77 metres, or about 21 storeys.

Inner West councillor Chloe Smith said the area was prime for high-density developments such as The Joinery, considering the transport links nearby.

“If you can’t build an increased density and have more people calling this community home, where can you? Because we know there are so many other areas of Sydney where they don’t have that infrastructure,” she said.

The government-owned former WestConnex site in Camperdown.Credit: Peter Rae

During a press conference announcing the increase in essential worker homes on the site, Minns made a jab at Greens MPs for opposing the project, saying they will “always find a reason to knock back infill, high-rise development”.

Local Greens MP Kobi Shetty said she didn’t oppose development on the site, but said it was disappointing that most new homes in the project will be market homes.

“We want to make it really clear that when the government owns these big swaths of inner city public land, they should be delivering some kind of public and social housing on them, and not delivering any isn’t good enough,” she said.

The inner west is grappling with a push from the local council to rezone large areas, particularly in Dulwich Hill and Marrickville, to allow for greater density housing developments.

The council unveiled the proposal, dubbed the “fairer future plan”, earlier this year as an alternative approach to the state government’s transport-oriented development rezoning.

Local Greens councillors and members are opposing the plan.

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