02 November 2011
The building home approvals figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today for
September, have NSWs approvals at half that of Victoria which has a lower population.
For every 10,000 people NSW has 47 approvals to Victorias 109 approvals and Queenslands 73.
NSW was the lowest in Australia on a per capita basis.
The Urban Taskforces chief executive, Chris Johnson said while the previous month of August
did show a more positive trend for NSW this seems to have been due to unusual circumstances.
These results for September 2011 compared to ten years ago for the same period represent a
34% reduction in home approvals, Chris Johnson said.
While it is admiral for the state government to announce the rezoning of thousands of housing
lots in Western Sydney, the reality is that many of these are not turning into approvals. This may
well be due to high levies imposed on new housing lots in NSW.
The NSW government needs to address this critical issue as to why NSW is lagging so much
behind other states, Mr Johnson said
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most
prominent property developers and equity financiers.
