By Megan Gorrey
More terraces and apartment blocks up to six storeys will be allowed around 171 transport hubs and town centres in greater Sydney and surrounds after the NSW government finalised pared back medium-density housing reforms intended to deliver more than 100,000 homes within five years.
Faced with a five-year goal to deliver 377,000 new dwellings in NSW, the government said its long-awaited “missing middle” housing reforms would deliver more terraces, townhouses and small apartment blocks in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Hunter regions.
The government’s bid to increase supply – including low and mid-rise housing in the middle suburbs – generated concerns among local councils.Credit: Oscar Colman
The changes will broadly enable apartment buildings up to six storeys within 400 metres of the chosen sites and blocks up to three storeys within 800 metres in residential zones. They will come into effect on February 28.
Premier Chris Minns said medium-density housing had long played an important role in delivering homes throughout NSW, but most local councils had effectively banned them in recent decades.
“The homes built under these reforms will be close to transport, open spaces and services that people need, creating better connected and more liveable neighbourhoods by making the most of existing critical infrastructure,” Minns said.
The state government announced its medium-density reforms to fill the gap between freestanding houses and high-rise apartments in November 2023. The policy intended to help deliver more than 112,000 homes by mid-2029 and account for about 30 per cent of its National Housing Accord target.
The first stage of the policy, which enabled the construction of dual occupancies and semi-detached dwellings across most of NSW, came into effect in July last year.
But the second stage – allowing more terraces, townhouses and small apartment blocks within an 800-metre radius of transport hubs and town centres –was delayed until after last September’s local government elections following strong pushback from local councils.
The government later promised the changes would start by the end of 2024. It had been widely expected to scale back the reforms after a departmental “policy refinement paper” leaked in May and reported by the Herald outlined possible changes, including to exclude certain types of land.
The changes to planning controls will permit buildings up to six storeys, or 24 metres, within 400 metres of the 171 designated train stations and town centres on land already zoned for medium (R3) or high-density (R4). Buildings up to three storeys, or 9.5 metres, will be allowed within 800 metres of stations and town centres on land zoned for residential (R1) or low-density (R2) development.
Employment zones will be excluded from the new development controls. The changes will broadly apply to heritage conservation areas (HCAs); however, local and state heritage items are excluded.
The policy will not apply to the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Wollondilly local government areas due to the high risk of floods and bushfires.
Developers will still need to submit development applications to local councils for assessment.
The government says the final revisions to the policy will not reduce the 112,000 additional homes the two-stage medium-density housing reforms are forecast to generate statewide in five years.
A terrace home that is part of the NSW “pattern book” for medium-density housing.Credit: NSW government
In selecting the sites, the government said it considered public transport frequencies and travel times, critical infrastructure capacity and constraints, local housing targets and distribution, and access to goods and services. Stations and town centres excluded from the scheme could later be added.
Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully said there had been increasing demand for medium-density housing that was close to public transport hubs, services and infrastructure.
“Allowing low- and mid-rise housing in more locations will help increase the number of homes in our state, improve affordability for renters and buyers and give people a choice on the type of home they want to live in,” Scully said.
Scully said the changes would also “unlock the potential” of the NSW pattern book of designs for terraces and small unit blocks that will attract a faster approval process for developers and builders.
Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said the government had stepped back from the initial scope of the reforms, and the decision to limit the changes to residential zones was a “big and very disappointing change” which “effectively pushes housing further away from transport nodes – the opposite of the [Transport Oriented Development] policy”.
“The number of designated town centres and rail station sites that the policy will apply to is considerably smaller at 171 – there are 306 heavy rail stations on the electrified rail network alone – let alone bus corridors, light rail stops, metro stops and other town centres.”
Urban Development Institute of Australia chief executive Stuart Ayres this week said uncertainty over stage two of the medium density reforms in the past 14 months had meant the “heavy lifter of housing reform is now looking more like a handbrake on new housing”.
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