Housing Approvals Collapsing in NSW – Strong Government Action Needed

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data for housing approvals for June 2019 shows a continuing collapse in housing approvals for NSW says the Urban Taskforce.

 

“The July home approvals for NSW on a trend basis indicates a fall over the last two years of 39 percent which is a big drop.” Says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson “In July 2017 there were 6,230 house and apartment approvals but two years later in July 2019 the approvals had dropped to 3,795. More alarming is the fact that there has been a big drop since February this year to July of 20 percent over only 5 months.”

 

“The biggest drop has been in apartments which have dropped by almost 40 percent over the last year from 2,901 in July 2018 to 1,756 in July 2019. Since March 2019 apartment approvals have dropped by 33.4 percent in only 4 months. Since the peak in July 2016 apartment approvals in NSW have dropped by a massive 59 percent”

 

“New South Wales is now behind the smaller state of Victoria which had 4,336 home approvals while New South Wales had only 3,795 approvals. This trend is moving New South Wales behind Victoria in terms of economic performance. NSW is approving apartments at the same rate as in 2012.”

 

“Recent comments from the NSW Government against new development at Pyrmont and at St Leonards South is sending a negative message to the development industry that despite spending large amounts on development applications approvals for new housing will be difficult to get.”

 

“The Urban Taskforce believes that the NSW Government must send stronger messages that the state is open for business and that more housing is needed. Most development companies are finding that it is getting more difficult to get approvals in New South Wales with many projects now stuck in the overloaded Land and Environment Court. We are keen to work with the NSW Government to speed up housing approvals but we are concerned that the NSW Department of Planning is about to move to Parramatta and this could lead to months of down time.”

 

Here are our graphs based on ABS data (see below)

 

 

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