Smaller cities must be developed, says Stockland’s Andrew Whitson

Stockland’s Andrew Whitson has called on government authorities to start developing Australia’s second-tier cities.

Stockland’s Andrew Whitson says we need to look beyond Sydney and Melbourne. Picture: James Croucher

Stockland’s residential chief executive Andrew Whitson has called on government authorities to start developing Australia’s second-tier cities as key jobs and transport hubs to help ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis.

Mr Whitson said San Francisco’s emergence as a global technological centre was a prime example, which Australian developers and planners should look towards as a future blueprint.

However, he said Australia was currently stuck in a “catch up” phase on infrastructure development, which had slowed the potential growth rates and prosperity of some of the country’s largest cities.

Stockland is Australia’s largest residential house builder and expects to build and settle at least 6000 homes in the current financial year.

The company’s major projects currently include Marsden Park, about 40km from Sydney’s city centre, and Craigieburn in Melbourne.

Mr Whitson said local, state and federal government authorities should work towards implementing a more strategic plan to boost the country’s second-tier city growth rates.

However, he said the development had to be met with major infrastructure investment that provided incentives, and especially jobs, to lure people from the city centres.

“If you look at what you would classify as the emerging cities, they have got a range of housing types supported by good infrastructure, and well connected,” Mr Whitson told The Australian.

“They are affordable still. I think some of those are not first tier cities, they are second tier cities, places like San Francisco that we should be looking at.

“Sydney and Melbourne have been the traditional growth engines of the economy but there are cities like Brisbane … the Sunshine Coast, Adelaide, Canberra.”

Mr Whitson said fast-train development between the capital cities on the nation’s east coast was vital to open up regional areas, which would benefit from population growth.

“Rapid transport would help the whole balance as to where we would see growth,” he said.

“The concept of rapid transport between Sydney and Melbourne and going through Canberra would unlock a whole lot of affordable housing options.”

Mr Whitson said Australia’s major cities, led by Sydney, were currently battling the negative fallout created by former governments failing to plan for the future.

In NSW, about 17,000 new homes are built each year but the industry forecasts that at least 40,000 are needed to meet demand.

Mr Whitson said high land prices and development costs that varied between states were preventing new housing coming online.

“Land prices in Melbourne are half the price that they are in Sydney and that is a factor of supply — that is greenfields and middle ring of the city as well.

“We are not zoning land and urban renewal areas to keep up with the current and the forecast population growth.

“It’s particularly acute in Sydney. That is where there is chronic undersupply, which is the result of a decade of underbuilding in metropolitan cities.”

The Coalition and NSW’s Baird government have promised to open up western Sydney as the state’s next major residential hub.

The federal government has committed $50 million to its Smart Cities program, which promises to build cities within 30 minutes of jobs, transport and education facilities.

Cities Minister Angus Taylor last week urged governments to implement more strategic assessments to speed up environmental approval processes.