New planning and development reforms in NSW aim to create more affordable housing and boost supply in a bid to tackle the affordability and supply crisis.
Premier Chris Minns will on Thursday announce a range of initiatives to incentivise the construction of affordable housing, including setting more minimum affordable targets and fast-tracking planning processes.
Housing developments over $75 million, which include a minimum of 15 per cent affordable housing, will gain access to a new State Significant Development pathway, meaning planning decisions will be made faster.
These developments will also gain access to a 30 per cent floor space ratio boost and a height bonus of 30 per cent above local environment plans.
Incentivising a minimum affordable housing component in private developments on private land will build on the government's pre-election commitment to ensure that developments on surplus public land include a minimum of 30 per cent affordable, social, and universal housing.
Under the new reforms, set to come into force later this year, the government will have the power to gazette more large-scale housing proposals as State Significant Developments, speeding up planning decisions.
Mr Minns called for the end of urban sprawl, saying people must get comfortable with the idea of going up in higher density housing, closer to infrastructure, to facilitate Sydney's growth.
"We can't just keep adding a street to the fringes of Sydney every time we need more housing," he will say at a Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue event at Sydney Olympic Park on Thursday.
"We need to look closer to the city, where so many people currently work, and where key workers need to travel to every single day."
Key to the housing reforms will be maximising affordable housing in private developments and not just on public land.
"This will result in more affordable housing entering the market, and more supply overall - both of which are crucial in tackling housing affordability and meeting our requirements for new dwellings," Mr Minns will say.
NSW needs to build 314,000 new dwellings in order to meet the state's share of the national housing accord to build one million new homes over five years starting from 2024.
But it is falling short by almost 30,000 homes a year.
Mr Minns told the Sydney 2050 Summit last month apartment approvals are at their lowest since 2014 while apartment rents rose 24 per cent in one single year.
At the same time NSW became the first state to surpass one million strata lots, increasing nine per cent in two years.
