Read Chris Minns’ plan to solve Sydney’s housing crisis

New planning and development reforms in NSW are aimed at creating more affordable housing and boosting supply to address the affordability and supply crisis.

Prime Minister Chris Minns will announce a series of initiatives on Thursday to boost affordable housing construction, including setting more minimal affordable targets and expediting planning processes.

Housing projects over $75 million, including a minimum of 15 percent affordable housing, will have access to a new State Significant Development pathway, meaning planning decisions will be made more quickly.

These developments also get access to a 30 percent GFA ratio boost and a 30 percent height allowance over local environmental plans.

Encouraging 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 excess public land contain a minimum of 30 percent affordable, social and universal housing.

Under the new reforms, which take effect later this year, the government will have the power to announce more large-scale housing proposals as major state developments, speeding up planning decisions.

Mr Minns called for an end to urban sprawl and said people need to get comfortable with the idea of ​​living in higher density housing, closer to infrastructure, to facilitate Sydney’s growth.

“We can’t add a street on the outskirts 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 have to travel every day.”

Opposition leader Mark Speakman says the government’s plan raises more questions than answers, saying ‘greenfield development’, meaning that in previously undeveloped areas, should not be sacrificed.

“Is this a reconfiguration of supply, or is it an increase in supply? We don’t know,” said Mr. Speakman.

“We are calling on the Labor government to provide details of today’s announcement: how much property will it raise? Where will they be built? And is good access to the infrastructure, including public transport, guaranteed?’

Tom Forrest, CEO of developer mouthpiece, Urban Taskforce, welcomed the changes, saying they will lead to a “flood of applications.”

He said greenfield developments were a necessary part of the solution and also called for more details.

“Urban Taskforce sees today’s announcement as an important first step towards achieving the objectives of the National Housing Agreement of the Albanian government.”

NSW must build 314,000 new homes to meet the state’s share of the agreement to build one million new homes over five years from 2024.

It falls short of nearly 30,000 homes each year.