13 December 2024 

In this Edition...

1.Planning Minister clears another obstacle to housing supply

2. Housing Development Authority – could this be the model that works?  

3. City of Sydney – a giant step backwards – a hike in affordable

...and much, much more.

4.  Blow me down with a feather! – North Sydney Council opposed to more housing near Crows Nest metro
5. More positive signs coming out of DPHI on housing
6. State Government fast tracks Moore Point development 
7. More good news – appeal upheld on Goldmate Property v TfNSW 
8. Harry Triguboff biography to be released housing taxes to impact development feasibility and hold back supply 
9. Brain drain continues in NSW while we get older and older… 
10. Even more good news from the Court of Appeal  – this time on what constitutes shop top housing
11. Reimagining Bondi Junction – Waverley Council releases a plan to transform a tired old city centre
12. Quote of the week
13. Old Sydney Fish Market site  
14. Troika or Triumvirate? Debate breaks out in the Urban Taskforce
15.  Media reports Minns Government considering back tracks on mid-rise reforms?   
16. Other news
17. Members in the news

1. Planning Minister clears another obstacle to housing supply

The Planning Minister, Paul Scully, finished a strong week with an announcement on Friday that he had removed an irritating piece of red tape in the NSW Planning system whereby an objection from a local council to a State Significant Development application under the Infill Affordable Housing Bonus Scheme automatically sent the proposal off to the Independent Planning Commission.

The IPC was never established to get bogged down in reassessing a residential proposal on the basis of a single complaint (often spurious and politically motivated) by a local council.

This is a practical reform and positive red tape slashing that should see a speeding up in the approvals of these significant proposals for new housing.

The Infill Affordable Housing Bonus Scheme has to date been the most positive reform of the Minns Government – with 70 proposals submitted through the scheme - comprising 20,000 new homes of which 4,600 are affordable.

Preventing Councils from interfering in this scheme by referring projects to the IPC is smart and will make a difference moving forward.

Projects already sitting with the IPC will need to go through the process (which is a disappointment), but this week spells an end to one tactic Councils could employ to impede or thwart housing in their LGA.

2. Housing Development Authority – could this be the model that works?  

The “i”s are being dotted and the “t”s crossed for the new Housing Development Authority, (comprising the self-styled ‘troika’ of the Secretaries of Premiers, Planning and the CEO of Infrastructure NSW # ) which will be established next week and start accepting Expressions of Interest  from the private sector in the new year.

The Minns Government is to be congratulated for establishing this new authority in a speedy fashion. It certainly hasn’t languished like a number of reforms which preceded it.

Urban Taskforce has argued consistently that the best way to solve housing supply was for the State Government to engage with industry and seek expressions of interest (EOIs) on shovel ready projects.

Prescriptive edicts delivered from up on high, as has sadly been the case with the Tier 1 TOD precincts, often are not ground truthed against the reality of construction costs, land prices, fees, taxes and charges, affordable housing contributions, Voluntary Planning Agreements and the rest. This wastes time (the Tier 1 TODs took an entire year) and deliver plans and pathways that are all too often deficient when it comes to development feasibility.

The new HDA is taking a different approach – one backed by the Urban Taskforce for over a decade. They are seeking solutions from the market, and thus ensuring that proposals are feasible from the start, while giving the Government and the private sector (which will need to deliver 95% of all housing required under the National Housing Accord) the best chance of moving closer to the housing targets.

This policy has come, not a minute too soon!

The Premier and the Minister for Planning are to be congratulated for listening to the Urban Taskforce and providing more optionality when it comes to delivering the housing NSW needs.

While the details are yet to be finalised, there is every reason to believe the Government has finally come up with an approach that will open the way for more housing approved and delivered in a more timely fashion.

3. City of Sydney – a giant step backwards – a hike in affordable housing taxes to impact development feasibility and hold back supply 

It was obviously an intoxicating presentation from the City of Sydney as their proposal to slap a massive hike in the affordable housing levies for new development actually drew warm praise from the Property Council of NSW.

In contrast, Urban Taskforce is very concerned about the City of Sydney’s draft planning proposal to increase affordable housing contributions across the LGA.

The report starts off well, noting that fees taxes and charges impact market housing, and no market housing means no affordable housing:

So far so good.

The proposal recommends no change to the affordable housing contributions in the LEP’s (ie. 3% of residential floor space and 1% of non-residential floor space). However, it does propose significant increases to the monetary contribution rate (per square metre of affordable housing GFA) reflecting the value of new residential units in the 4 different parts of the LGA:

So … let’s do the maths:

A development in the East precinct comprising 10,000 sqm GFA (circa 100 85sqm apartments assuming 85% efficiency – with the other 15% being used for common property including hallways, lifts and fire escapes etc). Such a development would require a 3% of GFA affordable housing contribution – so – that’s 300 sqm or a financial contribution of 300 x $20,000 = $6 million.

That is an increase from $3.688 million to $6 million - or a 62.7% increase in the affordable housing fee.

And it gets worse if an applicant is also proposing an uplift in GFA through a rezoning process.  Such applications will be smacked with an additional 20% affordable housing tax based on the uplift arising from the rezoning.

Council buried this on page 129, in Appendix B of their draft plan – so perhaps the Property Council’s eager enthusiasm was borne our of pending engagements to celebrate the season, however, all festive joy was postponed at Urban Taskforce to pour through the reams of documentation attached to this new taxation regime.

The Council and the NSW Government should take heed of the warning at the opening of the City of Sydney document – increasing taxes directly impacts on the feasibility of housing supply.  This is a massive increase in the tax levied from new home purchasers. If this makes housing unfeasible, it means no new housing and no affordable housing either.

Without incentives such as increased height and density, taxes work against supply by damaging feasibility. They also fly in the face of concepts like filtering – where new housing in costly areas like Sydney results in additional supply for lower income households in other parts of Sydney. This is basic economics and its time the City of Sydney employed an economist.

Taxing new housing supply to create an affordable housing lottery may soothe the consciences of some local councillors,  but it works directly against addressing the housing supply and affordability crisis.

4. Blow me down with a feather! – North Sydney Council opposed to more housing near Crows Nest metro

In comments which will surprise no one, the Mayor of North Sydney Council has complained about a housing proposal that is 350 metres from the new Crows Nest Metro which would deliver 200 new homes including 48 affordable apartments.

The proposal is a hop, skip and a jump from Crows Nest metro

The proposal by Deicorp was revamped in response to the Minns Government’s infill affordable housing policy. The result was more housing – market and affordable – right next to the new metro. A win-win for all bar North Sydney Council, with the Mayor lamenting the outcome and insisting the proposal should be curbed under the TOD Tier 1 policy which would have delivered far less housing.

If Council had its way, it would lop 6 storeys off the proposal.

The good news is that Council will not have the chance to get anywhere near this development, with DPHI recommending the IPC approve the development.

Submissions are accepted until December 19. With the IPC cancelling a public hearing because only one member of the public had registered to speak, we hope this proposal for well connected homes, which has spent 6 years in the NSW planning system to date, advances with due speed. 

North Sydney Council has bungled the redevelopment of the North Sydney Pool to such an extent that it is set to impose hefty rate rises. One would have thought more ratepayers would be welcomed by the financially struggling Council?

5. More positive signs coming out of DPHI on housing

Home’s Build-to-Rent proposal at St Leonards this week received concurrent rezoning and approval. The site was rezoned through the Minns Government’s Tier One accelerated precinct policy, with the proposal assessed shortly thereafter.

The streamlined rezoning, assessment and approval process is to be a feature of proposal which are offered a new pathway through the soon to be established Housing Delivery Authority.

The site now...

The Minister’s public comments were talking up a big game – describing this decision as just the start, to be amplified in terms of ambition, scope and results under the soon to be established Housing Development Authority.

Coming at the end of a 2-year process, it is pleasing to finally see a decision and the chance for the proponent to actually deliver housing!

We need more of this approach to rezoning and assessment – something we hope will come from the Housing Development Authority

6. State Government fast tracks Moore Point development 

The good news keeps rolling this week, with the Moore Point development on the banks of the Georges River at Liverpool being fast tracked through the Minns Government’s State Significant Rezoning Policy.

The NSW Government introduced the Policy in September 2024 to identify and deliver strategically important rezonings under 2 state-based pathways: state-led rezonings and state-assessed rezoning proposals.

The proposal will deliver 11,000 new homes, provide thousands of jobs during and the development and ongoing, maintain 10 hectares of open space, a new public school with a 1,000 student capacity, along with 8 kilometres of walking tracks and cycle ways.

Construction is expected to begin late next year. The first apartments are scheduled for completion by 2027.

While we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves – there are some strong positive signs coming from the Minns Government right now – importantly backed by approvals. It is critical that the Government transitions from their fine rhetoric on housing to runs on the board.

Perhaps we are seeing the Government get off the mark?  

7. More good news – appeal upheld on Goldmate Property v TfNSW 

The Goldmate case disrupted the détente that has existed between Government and property rights over the decades.

Urban Taskforce has been greatly concerned recently on moves within certain parts of Government away from long held principles of acting as model litigants – with a tendency to start testing the waters in terms of property rights and the amount of compensation to which affected private landholders are due.

The Appeal was the subject of great interest in the development sector and the upholding of the appeal is welcomed.

The findings and reasoning behind those were unanimous, with Justice Preston adding addition textual and contextual reasoning to the Judgement.

The matter has been remitted to the Land and Environment Court to make a new determination of compensation in light of this Judgement.

 Costs of the Appeal are to be paid by Transport for NSW.

In short, the finding was that the Roads Act defines the bounds of the public purpose of the compulsory acquisition undertaken by TfNSW, and thus the “broader public purpose” (of the development of the entire WSA precinct) as found by J Duggan, and applied for the purpose of reducing compensation, was done-so in error.

A victory for common sense and property rights. A welcome Christmas present for landowners.

8.  Harry Triguboff biography to be released

Just in time for the holiday season, an authorised biography of the Founder and Managing Director of Meriton, Harry Triguboff, will be released this Sunday, 15 December.

Harry also tells how he overcome obstacles and 'red tape' to build a corporate empire and explains the motivation that continues his drive and hunger for success at 91 years of age.

9. Brain drain continues in NSW while we get older and older… 

The ABS released updated population figures, showing the population of NSW stood at 8.48 million on 30 June 2024 – a 1.7% increase form last year. Most of this was built on immigration - with net overseas immigration at 142,473 for the year to June 2024.

The total Net Overseas Migration in the 12 months to end of June 2024 for all of Australia was 445,638 or about double the pre COVID intake.

Immigration is critical for productivity gains and addressing an ageing population. This week’s ABS data also shows that Australia’s average age will exceed 40 years for the first time in the course of the next 18 months.

NSW’s mean age is the second highest in the nation, only exceeded by sleepy old South Australia! That’s because our best and brightest can’t afford to rent or buy a home!

Net interstate immigration for NSW saw 30,865 people over the 12 months move out of the state. This is the brain drain the Premier is rightfully so concerned about.

Source: ABS

10. More good news from the Court of Appeal  – this time on what constitutes shop top housing

Mills Oakley Partner Anthony Whealy and Special Counsel Clare Collett analyse a recent NSW Court of Appeal decision which gives clarity of what will lawfully be considered ‘shop top housing’. 

Councils often claim that the entire ground floor of a development must be retail or business in order for a development to be ‘shop top housing’.   The Court of Appeal in Lahoud v Willoughby City Council [2024] NWCA 163 (a case in which Mills Oakley acted for the developer of the site) found this to be incorrect and held that a development at Northbridge which included resident’s parking on the ground floor was a form of ‘shop top housing’.

In short, the decision means:

• There is no requirement for the entire ground floor to be retail/business use; and
• The majority of the ground floor does not need to be for retail/business use. All that is required is that the retail/business use is not de minimis.

11. Reimagining Bondi Junction – Waverley Council releases a plan to transform a tired old city centre 

Bondi Junction – a great place for tumbleweeds

Credit to the new leadership at Waverley Council, with Mayor Will Nemesh commencing work on a Masterplan designed to reinvigorate the decidedly tired centre of Bondi Junction.

Council wants to transform the centre and facilitate more housing – including key worker housing.

The Master Plan will consider the development of a place vision with guiding principles and concepts for the transformation of Bondi Junction into a vibrant precinct, informed by:

(a) An urban design analysis that reviews existing planning controls and assesses whether these controls are still appropriate related to:

(i) Height, bulk and scale of existing building envelopes

(ii) Solar access and overshadowing of public spaces.

(iii) Appropriateness of existing commercial heritage listings.

(iv) Land use strategy and site-specific development controls that respond to the updated State Government housing delivery expectations for Waverley.

(b) A market assessment analysis to better understand the past, current and future trends of existing land uses including retail, commercial and residential uses with benchmarks to other comparable commercial centres within metropolitan Sydney.

(c) A feasibility assessment of existing development controls and recommendations for future feasible development controls.

(d) An infrastructure funding strategy.

(e) Community and stakeholder engagement strategy.

 (f) A strategic review of Council property assets in Bondi Junction with specific consideration for the inclusion of a new Council Chambers and other civic uses.

(g) Identifying current planning instruments, policies, strategies and plans that relate to Bondi Junction.

(h) Creating a liveable, environmentally sustainable and vibrant commercial and mixed-use precinct.

(i) Facilitating an increase in the provision of key worker, affordable and social housing while maintaining housing diversity.

(j) Provision for an active and permeable public domain, which connects places and provides for quality open and interconnected spaces.

(k) Quality built form and architectural design excellence

The Masterplan will propose short, medium and long term actions to provide clear guidance and controls for development.

It is a pleasing to see a council like Waverley (notorious for blocking new housing) preparing a strategy that is pro housing and jobs and responds to State priorities. The likes of Woollahra, North Sydney, Randwick and Ku-ring-gai would do well to follow in Waverley Council’s footsteps.

We are still unsure why the State Government did not include Bondi Junction as part of its Tier One TOD reforms.

Yet it seems  new leadership at Waverley has decided to move away from blocking housing to exploring how strategic centres like Bondi Junction

A refreshing change in approach from Waverley Council.

*Please note, the below link may be paywall protected

12. Quote of the week

It’s lengthy, but worth printing in full a scathing response to the hand wringing of some on the Northern Beaches over a proposed housing development by the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council:

13. Old Sydney Fish Market site      

Lendlease, Stockland and Mirvac have been shortlisted to deliver up to 1,100 apartments on the old Sydney Fish market site.

An array of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments will be required. The Minns Government recently upped the residential component for the redevelopment from 50% to 70%.

The shortlisted developers are due to submit their proposals by early next year.

14. Troika or Triumvirate? Debate breaks out in the Urban Taskforce

All the talk of the “troika” has had our Historical Allusions Department in overdrive – with some in the team expressly disappointed that the Government did not adopt the more classical term “triumvirate”- in honour of the First Roman Triumvirate consisting of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, 

Crassus, Pompey and Caesar

Or the Second Triumvirate of Octavian (later Emperor Augustus), Mark Anthony, and the often-overlooked Lepidus,

Octavian, Lepidus and Mark Antony

Or even the late 18^th century French iteration consisting of Napoleon Bonaparte, Abbe Sieyes and Duclos.

Bonaparte, Sieyes and Duclos

It was argued the Troikas established throughout various chapters in the history of the Soviet Union (particularly the first comprising Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev – the last two of which were executed in 1936)  could prove a cautionary tale for powerful NSW bureaucrats?

Happier days – Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev in 1924

However, it was ultimately resolved that the Reagan administration’s troika of Michael Deaver, Edwin Meeve and James Baker (often described by US political aficionados as the Troika that worked), was perhaps the best historical comparison and one to which the HDA should aspire!

Baker, Meeve and Deaver in 1981

With Kiersten Fishburn leading the charge towards gender diversity in historical triumvirates/troikas, we from the Urban Taskforce historical allusions reference team wish the HDA troika the very best!

The latest in a long line of troikas…

15. Media reports Minns Government considering back tracks on mid-rise reforms?

The policy was announced 12 months ago and has languished in DPHI ever since. Now it appears the policy will be finalised early next year and significantly curtailed in scope and ambition

This does not augur well for the policy, which will mean Councils like Northern Beaches are largely quarantined from a planning policy designed to deliver housing along bus lines and where there are established town centres.

Perhaps they have confidence in the Housing Delivery Authority to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to housing approvals? Time will tell.

16. Other news

1.    Final part of Stage 3 West Dap to Urban Release Area rezoned 

In a positive week for the NSW Planning system, the Minister for Planning Paul Scully announced that the remaining part of Stage 3 of the West Dap to Urban Release Area had been approved.

The decision clears the way for the delivery of a further 225 homes. The entire 3^rd stage for West Dap will realise up to 2,275 new homes.

The last missing piece of the puzzle in a strategical significant location for new housing in NSW.

2.    NSW Planning Portal reference group 

DPIE has published the minutes and presentations from the four reference groups established to improve the operation of the NSW Planning Portal.

17. Members in the news

*Please note these articles may be paywall protected

“…The $7.5 billion listed landlord Dexus has submitted a bid for the Australian portfolio of big super’s student housing player Campus Living Villages, which this year resurrected a failed $2 billion sale attempt from 2016 ...read more... 

To read more, click here:                    The AFR, 8 December

"…Prolific Sydney-based developer Deicorp has filed plans for an expensive urban facelift, proposing to build a $300m apartment precinct in Zetland, which would become home to mixed use commercial, retail and residential buildings across five development sites.​​​​..read more...

To read more, click here:                       The Daily Telegraph, 10 December

“…The St Leonard's project, led by developer Home, features 272 build-to-rent dwellings, 10 affordable housing units, 84 serviced apartments and shops…read more...

To read more, click here:                         SMH, 11 December

“…Stockland is making a major push into the apartment market ...read more... 

To read more, click here:              The Australian, 12 December

“…Developer Luxcon Pty Ltd’s plans recognised the site was an “important part of Castlecrag” but stated the proposed redevelopment would revive the shopping centre and meet demand for new housing in the local area ...read more... 

To read more, click here:              The Daily Telegraph, 12 December

"Walker managing director and chief executive officer David Gallant said the award is a testament to the collaboration between Walker, Western Sydney University and HDR to ensure the campus raised the benchmark in design and functionality ...read more... 

To read more, click here:             Architecture & Design, 12 December

"...Greg Goodman, who heads up global commercial property major Goodman Group, told the CEO Survey 2025 “momentum in the Australian economy is relatively subdued, with little relief in regard to cost of living and housing”…read more... 

To read more, click here:              The Australian, 13 December