More Housing Development needs to be stimulated by the North West Rail

12 December 2011

While supporting the governments announcement about the addition of two extra stations to the North West Rail Line the Urban Taskforce is calling for more opportunities for new housing to be built around stations.

“The investment of so much money on infrastructure must be used as a stimulus for new housing around stations and along the line.” said Urban Taskforce Chief Executive Chris Johnson.

“Sydney is only building half the number of houses it needs each year as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find appropriate land near existing transport nodes. We must grasp the opportunity of any new rail development to ensure that new housing, particularly in the more urban form of town houses and apartments, is incorporated into major infrastructure projects.”

“The extra two stations is good news, as is the fact that the project is moving towards planning approval but we need an integration between transport planning and housing planning to make the transport viable and to get new housing built.

“Every billion dollars of transport infrastructure expenditure should aim to stimulate the construction of around 10,000 new houses and we should see targets like this incorporated into an integrated planning system in NSW.

The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.

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