15 May 2008
The planning reforms, introduced to Parliament today, needed to be judged on how far they go to tackle the shortage of new homes for purchase and rent according to the Urban Taskforce.
The Taskforces chief executive, Aaron Gadiel, said the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that only 29,000 new homes were built in NSW last year.
Thats the lowest level since the ABS began collecting data on the subject in 1980, Mr Gadiel said.
Its only two-thirds of the average rate of new home construction in the 1990s (44,000 a year) and thats despite significant population and demographic changes.
This decline has been a disaster for Sydney.
Since new home construction has been in freefall, rents have skyrocketed by 26 per cent across the city (Department of Housing Rent and Sales Reports March 2005 March 2008).
The proposed reforms to expand the categories of development that are regarded as ˜complying will help everyday home owners who want to expand or re-build their homes.
They will also make it easier for homes to be built in new suburbs.
The new joint regional planning panels will boost community confidence in planning decisions for some major development approvals.
These new panels create an opportunity to take the politics and some of the corruption risk – out of development assessment.
But, only a very small number of development applications will be considered by these panels.
The reforms will make it harder for innovative developments to be approved, by introducing ˜neighbourhood reviews as an additional layer in the decision-making process.
The community and industry will study the proposed legislation closely.
At the end of the day, the legislation should be judged on whether it makes it easier for home buyers and renters to get a place to live.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
