The New South Wales government will allow developers to build taller and denser buildings – and have approvals fast-tracked – under sweeping changes to planning rules that will also curtail the power of councils to decide on major housing projects.
Under the proposal, housing developments valued at more than $75m and of which at least 15% is to be used for affordable housing will get access to a “state significant development” pathway that would fast-track approvals.
Developers proposing such projects will also be able to add 30% to the floor space to land size ratio and build 30% higher than the local environment plans allow.
The premier, Chris Minns, will announce the policy – expected to cause upset within local councils – at the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue on Thursday.
“The dream of home ownership has slipped out of reach for far too many people,” he will tell the forum.
“Calling it a housing crisis isn’t an overstatement. We need to tackle this from all angles – but the main one is housing supply.”
The reforms will come into effect later in the year.
The inclusion of types of housing for the state significant development pathway will probably receive pushback from some local governments, after a similar reform, known as 3A, was scrapped after Barry O’Farrell became premier in 2011.
The controversial planning provision, introduced in 2005, gave the planning minister the ability to rubber stamp major projects deemed to be of state or regional significance.
Minns will tell the western Sydney audience that density should be shared across the city and not just focused on the fringes.
“We can’t just keep adding a street to the fringes of Sydney every time we need more housing,” he will say.
“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.”
Labor was elected in March amid a housing and cost-of-living crisis. The government has previously said developments on public land needed to include a minimum of 30% affordable and social housing.
The premier, alongside key government figures including the housing minister, Rose Jackson, raised the need to rapidly increase the number of new homes being built.
Jackson said she was interested in exploring converting vacant offices into public housing, as well as building attractive social housing properties in the inner city.
The government has also announced a new building commission designed to give apartment buyers confidence in the quality of their new homes.
