27 September 2024 

In this Edition...

1.Billbergia founder John Kinsella AM is Urban Taskforce Property Person of the Year

2. Government should drop “Help to Buy” and focus on SUPPLY!

3. Changes to negative gearing – political kamikaze and it won’t solve the housing supply crisis

...and much, much more.

4. Question of the week - Sarah Abo to Anthony Albanese
5. Greenfield housing supply is in high demand
6. Planning panel APPROVES student housing across from UNSW 
7. Argentina scraps rent controls – rents are down and supply up
8. Urban Taskforce presents at a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill
9. Minns Government's rent reforms for pets
10. Urbis– apartment buildings taking 2.5 years longer to complete than 5 years ago
11. New Metro line opening up capacity along north shore line
12. Regional Planning gives green light for sorely needed housing in Kiama
13. Spotlight on excellence – Meriton’s Ocean takes out best high rise residential development
14. Urban Taskforce in the news
15. Members in the news

1. Billbergia founder John Kinsella AM is Urban Taskforce Property Person of the Year

With all the headwinds buffeting the property development sector, Billbergia has completed 2,500 new apartments in the past three years and has a forward pipeline of over 10,000 apartments on land it already owns.

Billbergia has been an industry leader on ESG performance, delivering buildings that exceed National Construction Code standards and communities with amenity that leads the ‘place-making’ agenda.

Billbergia’s reputation for quality across a range of development types has been reflected in recent years with awards such as Commercial Development of the Year in 2024 for 88 Walker, North Sydney, and the winning of the Affordable Residential Development of the Year award for Lidcombe Rise Stage 1 in 2023.

Australian Property Markets covered the announcement, noting Urban Taskforce Chair David Ghannoum’s comments:

Industry will gather for a charity fundraising dinner on November 27 to celebrate the Property Person of the Year award and achievements of John and Billbergia. Tables are now available on our website.

2. Government should drop “Help to Buy” and focus on SUPPLY!

With a two-party preferred vote now at 50-50, housing has emerged strongly as the single biggest concern with voters according to the latest Newspoll.

Housing costs (rents or mortgage repayments) dwarfed all other cost of living issues – with 40% ranking it as the most worrisome. Grocery bills and energy prices were only ranked as of greatest concern by 25% and 18% respectively.

The 18-34 year-old bracket – saw 60% of respondents identifying housing as the No. 1 issue.

The housing supply crisis has now transformed itself into the major economic crisis of the day.  But it’s also now the No. 1 political crisis for the Albanese Government.

The Albanese Government has been sluggish in dealing with the crisis. While quick to call the State Premiers together and sign up to a National Housing Accord, they have danced around the central issue underpinning the issue – namely the lack of supply.

Retaining $3 billion in the Treasury coffers until 2030 as a potential reward for those State’s who meet their housing accord targets (which most think will not be achieved) shows that the Albanese Government has been caught short when it comes to meaningful action on housing supply.

The Albanese Government has, to date, done nothing to stimulate private sector market priced housing supply, despite that sector delivering over 95% of Australia’s housing stock.

When energy prices were the raging issue earlier this year, the Commonwealth threw $3.5 billion at the problems through energy bill relief rolled out to households and small businesses.

The housing supply crisis is complex, deep and wide. It is holding back economic growth. It demands a decent whack of Commonwealth focus and funding to both monitor States undertaking the critical planning reforms and reward successful States with housing enabling infrastructure.

Notwithstanding the tentative planning reforms that have commenced in NSW – there has been little for the private sector in terms of rebuilding confidence and feasibility in the delivery of market housing. Peter Achterstraat, the NSW Productivity Commissioner stated as much in his recent report, stating clearly that returning profit to the sector was critical to housing supply.

Right now, a rate cut looks a long way off, higher construction costs are now baked in, labour supply in the construction sector is tight and being crowding out by other infrastructure projects, and the fiscally challenged States are increasingly slugging new housing for an array of feasibility killing fees, taxes and charges.

The days of bold tax reform under Hawke, Keating and Howard; transforming the economy and boosting productivity, seem a distant memory.

Instead, we see the Federal Government tying itself up in knots over the focus group driven “help to buy'" scheme. This is a dud policy which will stimulate price rises without adding to supply. It should be dumped.

Rather than negotiating with Greens and backtracking on clear election commitments over property taxes, the Albanese Governemnt should simply shelve the “help to buy" scheme and focus all their efforts on housing supply.

*Please note, the below link may be paywall protected

3. Changes to negative gearing – political kamikaze and it won’t solve the housing supply crisis

The Prime Minister is right to state that housing and tax policy should be assessed against what it does to housing supply. At least he is across that important policy axiom.

But the spectacle of the last few days over “will they or won’t they”, in terms of changing rules around negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, sums up the parlous state of the Albanese Government as it heads towards an election.

Is the work on negative gearing tax settings being undertaken by Treasury merely a bureaucratic analysis of how damaging the Green’s policy would be – or is Labor seriously considering rolling this reform out … again?

At the end of the day, negative gearing reform is a political sideshow that will do nothing to assist supply, hardly make a dent in house prices, will push rents up, and further deter investors from investing in housing supply.

Worse - for a Government with a primary vote hovering around 30% - charges to negative gearing has proven electoral poison time and time again.

In 1987 Paul Keating reversed his decision of 1985 to remove negative gearing tax arrangements in the face of rising rents and supply shortages.  Prime Minister Bob Hawke was smart enough to announce the reversal of this tax policy mistake just before the 1987 election.

More recently, the hapless Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, took changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax to both the 2016 and 2019 elections.  He (and Labor) lost both with a last week landslide against him in the mortgage belt seats in 2019.

Around one million voters utilise the negative gearing tax provisions for property. These previsions were introduced in 1936 by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons as a measure designed to stimulate housing supply in the post-depression era.  The policy really had a massive impact after WWII.  Negative gearing underpins much of the private rental sector across the nation.

The clumsy political and media handling of the matter will not only cause consternation in the minds of the voting public, and will also send jitters through many Federal Labor MPs.

Federal Independent, ACT Senator David Pocock, commissioned research from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library on the percentages of taxpayers in each Federal electorate who register net rental losses with the ATO (and thus have access to negative gearing).

We have listed Labor held seats where the proportion of voters benefitting from the current tax arrangements exceeds or nears the existing electoral margin.

*Please note, the below link may be paywall protected

Today’s Sarah Abo to the Prime Minister Albanese:

5.  Greenfield housing supply is in high demand

When it comes to tackling the housing supply crisis, an "all shoulders to the wheel" approach is demanded.

While much of the initial policy response from the Minns Government has honed in on infill development, greenfield development is critically important, particularly when it comes to delivering the housing choice that has been a feature of Australian life for so long.

Urban Taskforce calls for 5 key responses from the NSW Government to stimulate and streamline greenfield development:

The NSW Government has been slow to progress the infill housing planning policy reforms.  We are still waiting for the finalisation of the Tier 1 TOD SEPP changes and the associated planning pathway details.  Further, the medium density housing reforms have also not yet been finalised and this on its own is holding up many development applications.

Bureaucratic and political navel gazing is making the housing supply and affordability crisis worse.

In this context, the only way to stimulate housing supply quickly is a renewed focus on greenfield development.  The new homes are much faster to deliver, particularly where water infrastructure has capacity.

We say – the Government must do BOTH!

The NSW Government needs to put together a comprehensive package of greenfield housing reforms that provides for the sustainable development of Sydney’s west and regional NSW.

6. Planning panel APPROVES student housing across from UNSW 

Further good news in Randwick (after last week local council elections where the Greens lost a councillor) with a student housing proposal approved by the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel.

In a victory for commonsense and a recognition that we are in the midst of a housing supply crisis, the decision means that the delivery of 3,000 homes for students, right across from UNSW campus and on the light rail route on Anzac Parade, can proceed.

Despite currently serving as a car park, the decision was poorly received by NIDA and the former Greens Mayor of Randwick, with both claiming NIDA and Council are seeking further legal advice.

Wasting ratepayers and taxpayer money when you don’t get your way is par for the course for NIMBY types – always keen to use rate payers' money to prosecute the anti- housing agenda.

*Please note, the below link may be paywall protected

7. Argentina scraps rent controls – rents are down and supply up

The economic libertarian President of Argentina, Javier Milei, scrapped rent controls on coming to power in late 2023.

*Please note, the below link may be paywall protected

8. Urban Taskforce presents at a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill

Urban Taskforce CEO Tom Forrest presented to the Upper House Inquiry into the Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill.

The strong message from Tom was that the Government needed to ensure environmental goals for proportionate to other priorities like housing.

Too often we see the hand of Government seek to interfere once land is rezoned. If Government is to make these calls – it should be upfront – not through multiple stages of planning assessment - all of which adds to risk and uncertainty and comes at a high economic cost.

Urban Taskforce noted that areas in the firing line of the Government reforms, peri- urban areas around Sydney as well as regional towns, should not be unfairly forced to pick up the full tab for addressing historic environmental issues.

Biodiversity conservation is a statewide concern which needs to be addressed at a whole-of-state level – not just punishing particular landowners and new home buyers.

We await the deliberations of the committee, due to deliver its inquiry report by 11 October 2024.

9. Minns Government's rent reforms for pets

Rental reforms proposed by the Minns Government include removing  a landlord’s ability to refuse to allow tenants to keep an animal in their property without a valid reason.

Presently in NSW landlords can refuse to allow a tenant to keep a pet without providing a reason, unless it's an assistance animal.

Minister Anoulack Chanthivong will be introducing a Bill to NSW parliament providing for these changes. It introduces more uncertainty for investors in deciding whether to build and rent properties.

Creating uncertainty about an owner’s right to decide who occupies a property creates more problems than solutions.

Too bad for an investor who wants a say in how their property is used!

Right now, all we have heard in terms of grounds to refuse, is if an animal may break a law (the mind boggles!), or if the owner also lives on the same property and may nor appreciate sharing with the pet.  Not much comfort there!!

Does a tenant have to decare they own a pet whilst making a rental application? Can they buy a pet if they are a pet-less tenant beforehand and will they have to inform the owner?? How large can the pet be?

Minister Anoulack Chanthivong follows up the disaster over the Building Bill consultation process with a pandora’s box of questions over how this new pet-friendly but owner-angsty legislation will work.

10. Urbis– apartment buildings taking 2.5 years longer to complete than 5 years ago

This week Urbis released its Apartments Essentials National Snapshot for Q2 2024,
Their analysis revealed a dramatic slowdown in the time taken to finalise apartment building construction.  For monitored projects, it took on average 45 months for apartment building to go from Development Application to built. In June 2024 – that is currently 75 months.

An extra 2.5 years on average to deliver completed developments. As Urbis concludes “no wonder we are seeing constrained supply.”

11. New Metro line opening up capacity along north shore line

Opportunities abound for new housing right along the North Shore line, and the Minns Government needs to deliver plans for medium to high density housing from Hornsby all the way down to Milsons Point. And this must include more opportunities for mixed use development – especially in centres like Hornsby, Chatswood and North Sydney.

This data is even more evidence for the Minns Government to go bold in terms of well-located housing on the North Shore.

12. Regional Planning gives green light for sorely needed housing in Kiama

Further good news this week and a sign of hope for desperately needed housing along the South Coast with the Southern Regional Planning Panel deciding that the Springside Hill planning proposal should proceed to Gateway.

Besides much needed market housing stock in an increasingly unaffordable part of NSW, the planning proposal includes a commitment to deliver 25% as non market housing– including an array of social and affordable housing, key worker housing, local buyers and first home buyers.

Importantly, 43 hectares of the site will be set aside for public open  space, riparian lands and conservations areas.

Jobs and housing for Kiama. The NSW Government has set Kiama Council a housing accord target of 900 new homes by 2029. The decision by the Planning Panel is a big step in the right direction.

13. Spotlight on excellence – Meriton’s Ocean takes out best high-rise residential development

The project’s creativity and forward thinking are evident throughout, from its iconic spinnaker-like design to the integration of golden accents. Lifecycle planning ensures long-term operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness, addressing challenges like soft ground conditions and wind resistance through proactive problem solving.

Ocean stands as a pinnacle landmark in Surfers Paradise, offering luxurious amenities and unparalleled ocean views. All achieved in record time with no affordable housing tax, no design competition, nor any design review interference from any third-rate design panel.

This is another quality product from Harry Triguboff and Meriton. It is a worthy winner of best high rise residential development in our 2024 Development Excellence Awards.

Our thanks again to CBRE for sponsoring this year’s award.

 L-R Tom Forrest, Daniel Hendler, Meriton Group, CBRE’s David Milton (award sponsor), Ella Lizor, Meriton Group, and Minister Paul Scully

14. Urban Taskforce in the news

City Hub media reported our call for immediate action to kick start infill housing around key rail and road corridors in Sydney:

The Daily Telegraph’s James O’Doherty asked CEO Tom Forrest about the rail union work bans over the Sydenham to Bankstown line

That horse has bolted …

15. Members in the news

*Please note these articles may be paywall protected

“…Woolworths has made a fresh new bid for a multimillion-dollar shopping centre in the heart of one of the fastest growing suburbs in Sydney’s southwest, where it already has plans for a supermarket…  read more...

To read more, click here:                         Liverpool Leader, 20 September 

“…Walker Corporation’s build-to-sell project at Robina on the Gold Coast was one of two revealed at the weekend to pilot the program…. … read more... 

To read more, click here:                     The Urban Developer, 23 September

“…Multiplex NSW regional director Daniel Murphy said that delivering the roof structure had taken extensive planning and collaboration over the years…read more... 

To read more, click here:                     The Urban Developer, 23 September

“…According to Coronation, the project would account for 11,000 of the 16,700 new homes set as a target by the NSW government for the Liverpool area … read more…read more... 

To read more, click here:                    The Urban Developer, 25 September

“…Fabcot, the development arm of supermarket giant Woolworths, has revealed plans for a dual tower shop top build-to-rent play in Brisbane’s inner-north… read more…read more... 

To read more, click here                The Urban Developer, 26 September