By Megan Gorrey
Up to 100 major residential developments could be sent on a fast track to construction next year, with a new housing authority empowered to bypass local councils due to start taking applications from developers in January.
Faced with ambitious housing targets, the state government last month announced a three-person Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) would be able to approve spot land rezonings and large housing developments simultaneously under a process to speed up approval and delivery times.
NSW Premier Chris Minns must deliver 377,000 new well-located homes across the state by 2029 under the National Housing Accord.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Councils have expressed alarm at the changes, which they say concentrate decision-making power with a few “distant bureaucrats”, removing local input and knowledge from major projects.
Premier Chris Minns said the authority was formally established on Thursday after a “short, sharp” consultation. He said the approval process would potentially shave a year off assessment times and marked a “significant change to how we bring major housing developments to market”.
“These changes are about making it easier to increase housing supply near existing infrastructure vital to supporting thriving, vibrant communities, including more options for young people now and into the future,” he said.
From January 8, developers can submit expressions of interest to the authority for proposed large housing projects that have an estimated development cost above $60 million in Greater Sydney and above $30 million in regional NSW.
An estimated 80 to 100 proposals are expected to be assessed in the first year. A plan to redevelop the Edgecliff Centre with a 35-storey residential and office tower – which would be the tallest building in the eastern suburbs – is among projects expected to be decided by the HDA.
The planning troika comprises Premier’s Department secretary Simon Draper, Department of Planning secretary Kiersten Fishburn and Infrastructure NSW chief executive Tom Gellibrand.
The trio, which will be able to pluck proposals from the planning system or take developers’ applications, will meet monthly to consider proposals and make recommendations to Planning Minister Paul Scully on whether to declare them as “state significant” developments.
Minns and Scully said developers could still choose to follow the existing “regionally significant” development pathway, where proposals are assessed by councils and determined by planning panels. However, the changes would provide another option for major residential developments.
An artist’s impression of the 35-storey residential tower that could replace the Edgecliff Centre, above Edgecliff railway station. The proposal could be assessed via a new planning process. Credit:
In a joint release, the pair said the new assessment pathway would “reduce the number of large complex development applications councils are required to assess each year, freeing up resources for councils to assess less complex development applications”.
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker expects some developers with proposals within the transport-oriented development scheme around Crows Nest would opt for the new pathway.
She said councils had long been stripped of the power to decide big housing proposals. But she worried having “three very distant bureaucrats who’ll be assessing proposals for the whole state” would remove local input and knowledge from planning decisions and conditions on applications.
“At least with regional planning panels you have a community representative, so even when there are consents, the development conditions are improved by having someone with local knowledge,” she said.
NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully.Credit: Michael Quelch
Scully said the process would provide a consistent approval pathway across NSW “with more rigour and less red tape”.
“Councils will continue to support the statewide commitment to increase housing supply by assessing housing developments submitted via the local and regionally significant development approval pathways,” he said.
Property Council NSW executive director Katie Stevenson said the new authority and pathway would “give industry more confidence going into 2025 than might have otherwise been the case”.
“The Housing Delivery Authority has a clear mandate – to drive more flexible and faster approval pathways across the state so we can get more housing moving more quickly,” she said.
“We now need to see similar accelerated action from the authority in the new year to address the growing backlog of residential developments stuck in the planning system.”
Stockland development chief executive Andrew Whitson, who was among developer representatives at a government round table on the reforms on Monday, said the authority had “the potential to significantly reduce planning time frames and investment uncertainty in NSW, allowing quality homes to be delivered more quickly for first home buyers and essential workers”.
The government has published the criteria for the developers’ expressions of interest for the scheme, as well as assessment criteria for successful proposals, which it said would ensure the proposals delivered well-located homes that were close to transport, amenities and services.
It comes as the state government lags on the 378,000-dwelling target agreed by Minns as part of the National Housing Accord. Updated Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure forecasts show 151,670 new homes will be built in Greater Sydney by July 2029, far below the 263,000 needed.
Last month new figures revealed nearly 50,000 dwellings across Greater Sydney approved in 2021 and 2022 had not commenced construction.
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