26 June 2008
The NSW Governments announcement of two new urban renewal projects on public housing land should be a sign of things to come, according to Aaron Gadiel, chief executive of the Urban Taskforce.
These projects are an exciting opportunity for new compact pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods, Mr Gadiel said.
Mr Gadiel said that the re-developments would help make local housing more affordable.
The solution to Sydneys rental crisis is to boost the supply of new homes, Mr Gadiel said.
In the 12 months to March 2008, the construction of 29,800 new homes was commenced in NSW. This is a 40 per cent decline since March 2003.
The shortage of new homes has forced rents up with an increase of 26 per cent across Sydney over the past three years.
Sydney needs 640,000 extra homes to cope with our population growth and changing demographics over the next 25 years.
Every new housing development gets us a bit closer to this goal.
The redevelopment of Housing NSWs $30 billion stock of run-down properties is a great place to start.
We congratulate the government for announcing these two projects on top of its previous commitment to redevelopments in Glebe, Bonnyrigg, Redfern, Macquarie Fields and Minto.
We urge them to continue this work until Housing NSWs vast $30 billion portfolio has been redeveloped.
This will benefit residents and the wider community. Mr Gadiel said the government and the wider community will get the possible outcome through private sector involvement in the development process. The private sector can deliver the sort of high quality housing that the local community is crying out for, Mr Gadiel said.
Private sector involvement helps insulate the taxpayers from the risks inherent in developing homes for private sale.
In Villawood the proposed redevelopment at Kamira Court replaces 111 previously demolished public housing units with 427 homes in a mix of private and public housing. The redevelopment of the Riverwood public housing area, announced today, will increase the total number of public and private homes from about 150 to more than 600. The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
