07 February 2010
Lightening fast approvals for public housing combined with ponderous assessment of private sector proposals will skew communities, according the Urban Taskforce.
More than 3,200 public housing homes have been approved in NSW under new fast-track planning rules introduced 12 months ago, while applications for private sector development are still caught in red tape.
Approvals for 1,015 new public housing homes have been published in the last 50 days alone thats approval rate of 20 new homes a day, Mr Gadiel said.
Unfortunately, the NSW Governments blitzkrieg on public housing approvals hasnt helped private sector developers who want to provide housing for owner occupiers and low-to-middle income renters.
Private sector developers are stuck in a 1970s planning system, while public housing is quickly rolled out.
Mr Gadiel said that community amenity may be impacted if the only apartments in an area are public housing.
The government should be encouraging a mix of housing type and ownership, he said.
This means private sector apartment development should be given the same kind of support as public housing development.
Without such support, residential development in certain areas may be artificially skewed.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the first six months of the public housing construction program (April September 2009), work started on 1,090 new public housing homes in NSW.
This means that one in ten new homes in this period were public housing homes, compared to the previous two years, where only one in 25 new homes were public housing.
The extra public housing development is great for the economy and has helped support employment in the construction and the trades sector, Mr Gadiel said.
But many privately-developed homes simply cant be built right now because of unrealistic council requirements.
Until we get reform in this area, the housing supply in NSW will continue to fall well short of whats needed.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
For every $1 million in construction expenditure, 27 jobs are created throughout the broader economy.
The construction activity made possible by property developers contributes $78 billion to the national economy each year and creates 849,000 direct jobs.
