Urban Living Network covers news about new homes and apartment developments, retail trends, job locations, density related to railway stations, urban projects on city fringes, strata and planning reforms. We aim to provide real data on trends, housing supply and demographic change. ULN is essential reading for all those involved in urban living including politicians, councils, planners, architects, developers, financiers, legal firms, real estate agents and strata bodies.
Tom Forrest
CEO - Urban Taskforce Australia
To ensure we stay connected and keep you updated on the latest news, events, and updates from the Urban Taskforce, we would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to visit and like/follow our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UTFaus/
By staying connected on our new platform, you wont miss any important updates or announcements.
We look forward to engaging with you on our Facebook page!
3 May 2024
In this Edition...
- TOD Tier 2 SEPP – a good start but a lot left in the tank
- Endeavour Energy and Electrical Trade Union industrial dispute threatens jobs and housing
- Poor ABS housing approvals mean the National Housing Accord starts a long way behind
- Weak National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Report gives the Feds a free pass on addressing the housing supply crisis
- NSW Government Architect releases good design housing map
- Walker Corporation to inject $150 million in water infrastructure funding to fast-track housing at Appin
- Randwick council knocks back student housing metres from main UNSW campus
- Western Sydney road projects – pressure mounts on the Commonwealth and this month’s Federal Budget
- Mapping TODs – unlocking conversations and saving time through data driven decisions
- Quote of the week
- Upper House report tabled on the future public transport needs of Western Sydney
- Hunter Street metro approval – great! Why can’t the housing sector get similar treatment?
- K&L Gates assessment of Federal BTR legislation – some cracks in an otherwise solid foundation
- Other news
- Urban Taskforce in the news
- Members in the news
1. TOD Tier 2 SEPP – a good start but a lot left in the tank
The NSW Premier, Chris Minns and the Planning Minister, Paul Scully, are to be congratulated for a substantial shift in scope and ambition around well-located housing. For years the NSW planning system has read down policy reform designed to encourge housing supply, particularly in Sydney's east. They have failed to capture the potential and opportunity of locations near existing and planned public transport nodes.
Urban Taskforce CEO welcomed the new SEPP, speaking with ABC Radio’s Sarah Macdonald
The Tier 2 TOD SEPP is a step in the right direction, but there is more work to be done. It's long overdue focus on Sydney’s North Shore has cause a predictable ruckus from Kuring Gai Council, but if anything the proposals are underdone with more to do around Chatswood, North Sydney and Mosman in particular. It should not be a set-and-forget regulation but should be constantly reviewed on performance and outcomes. Where there is room for improvement and better outcomes, it should be changed.
Urban Taskforce will certainly be looking for much more substantial height and density around the 8 tier 1 TOD precincts being precinct planned by DPHI’s best and brightest later in the year. We will also be looking to a second round of Tier 1 TOD precincts once the first group is complete and gazetted.
Generally, Urban Taskforce believes that a bit more ambition and boldness would have gone a long way towards a better balance of urban outcomes, more homes and jobs closer to where people live and an overall win for the environment.
Our main contention with the Tier 2 TODs announced this week is the mandated height of building at 22 metres for residential flat buildings and 24 metres for shop top housing. With a little more of a push - a height of 28 metres (the height of buildings in Paris), would have boosted feasibility around the 37 Tier 2 TOD’s and potentially delivered much more housing around these stations.
Density with good design works.
When considering many of the 37 Tier 2 TOD stations on the list, some decent density could trigger a burst of mini urban renewal in many of these precincts – delivering more excellently-located housing, creating more vibrant neighbourhoods, and bringing a range of economic opportunities to otherwise stale, tired and stagnant station precincts.
NIMBY’s are never going to accept increase in height and density - they would have everything preserved in aspic.
With that being the case - why not put in place more ambitious heights? The community is not going to distinguish between a protest against 6-8 storeys as opposed to 8-10 storey proposal.
Complainers gonna complain...
If development does proceed along the lines of the conservative 22 metre heights and the 2.5:1 FSR’s now allowed in the SEPP, these height and density outcomes will be locked in for decades. Many Tier 2 potential sites have been excluded because of the proliferation of three storey walk up strata developments that were baked in during the 1970’s and 80’s and will prove difficult and arduous to unlock despite their location.
A long term vision is needed.
In the midst of a housing supply and affordability crisis, with an unprecedented social licence to address housing supply and affordability, combined with an almost universal consensus across the media, this is a perfect opportunity to go big and bold.
2. Endeavour Energy and Electrical Trade Union industrial dispute threatens jobs and housing
Urban Taskforce has become increasingly aware of a deteriorating dispute between Endeavour Energy and the ETU over their Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.
The dispute, now in the “protected action phase” is having a significant impact on booked power outages which enable the connection of industrial, commercial and residential developments into the network.
These booked outages are critical to bringing on new homes, new communities, new retail centres, new manufacturing pants and industrial service centres on line.
The third party victims of the breakdown in negotiations over the EBA are those trying to deliver housing and jobs. It is costing our members, and the NSW economy, millions of dollars.
This is a problem the NSW shareholder Ministers of Endeavour Energy – the Treasurer Daniel Mookhey MLC, and the Finance Minister Courtney Houssos MLC , along with the portfolio Minister for Energy, Penny Sharpe MLC, and of course the Premier, Chris Minns, must get involved with and resolve quickly.
The industrial land and residential property development of western Sydney depends on this matter being resolved. Our members have contracted Endeavour Energy to provide what is a monopoly service. Endeavou Energy must ensure they deliver that service and not just shrug their shoulders and blame others to their failure.
The development industry has enough challenges without being a pawn in an EBA standoff that seems to be going nowhere fast!
3. Poor ABS housing approvals mean the National Housing Accord starts a long way behind
Little positive news in the latest set of housing approvals released by the ABS this week.
Dwelling approvals are stuck in a rut, with numbers tracking at about half of what they need to be nationally and in NSW, in order to have any chance of reaching the National Housing Accord completion targets.
NSW needs around 90,000 approvals annually – the 12 months to March figure was touch over 45,000
Annual national housing approvals need to lift by more than 100,000 to get anywhere near the 240,000 housing completions required each year under the 5 year National Housing Accord.
The immediate message from the data is for the cashed-up Commonwealth to allocate significant sums in the upcoming Federal Budget on housing enabling infrastructure. This would relieve pressure from cash strapped NSW, allowing the State Treasurer, Daniel Mookhey to look at easing off on a range of feasibility-killing fees, taxes and charges on new housing.
The lack of housing supply underpins an array of economic and social problems plaguing NSW and the broader nation.
The ambitious targets of the National Housing Accord are not simply theoretical policy exercises– but are critical in addressing a range of mounting economic and social challenges hold back the nation and disproportionately affecting those who can least afford it.
To analysis the ABS data further, click the following link.
To read Urban Taskforce’s media release on the approvals data, click the following link:
4. Weak National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Report gives the Feds a free pass on addressing the housing supply crisis.
Eight weeks out from the commencement of the 5 year National Housing Accord, the Federal Government’s Housing Supply and Affordability Council has released a State of the Housing System report which concludes that the 1.2 million new homes won’t be realise, with the Council projecting only 943,000 dwelling completions over the next 5 years.
The 1.2 million new homes under the National Housing Accord can be achieved if the Federal Government gets fully behind the agenda. It needs to bring the incentive dollars forward and ensure infrastructure funding for housing is a centrepiece of the Federal Budget.
Importantly it was great to hear the Federal Minister for Houisng, Julie Collins, say today that the housing system must be more responsive to changes in demand.
The report is strong on acknowledging some of the problems and their consequences, but it is light on when its comes to recommending policy and program changes, particularly in the Federal sphere.
While they acknowledge the bleeding obvious – that affordability and supply will go backwards in the short term, and successfully predict under performance of housing supply against the National Housing Accord targets over the next 5 years, the report blithely concludes that this manifest National under-performance on housing supply will be sufficient to meet demand.
The section on population and housing demand does not take into account the 2023/24 financial year which will account for the highest level of net overseas migration into this country ever. The report predicts average housing completions to be 173,000 per annum. Housing approvals data released this week show National Housing approvals in the 12 months to March 2024 as being only 162,649 (ABS series 8731006 - Seasonally adjusted).
The rising cost of construction, the lack of funding for infrastructure to support rezoned land, the inflexibility of planning systems and the impact of over-regulation will all result in these historically low approval numbers not resulting in new dwelling completions.
In short – the Report's predictions of 173,000 annual national completions, albeit way short of the Accord targets and no-where near enough to put any downward pressure on prices, is significantly overstated.
Notable, the Report states at page 83, Section 4.1.1:
That is the problem!
This dry undergraduate, academic-like, backward facing Report (it is dense, mainly historic and without and substantial practical recommendations or policy reform proposals) is a reasonable scene setter , but one could get that by picking up any newspaper over the past few years. It does touch on a number of issues affecting housing supply (construction costs, land availability, financial conditions, labour supply, declining profit margins and insolvencies) but disappointingly it fails to provide concrete advice to the Federal Government on what it must do.
Section 8 of the report lists a number “areas of focus” which alludes to the need to improve the efficiency in the land use and planning systems, tax reform and the like, but lacks the punch of a series of recommendations to the Commonwealth.
In contrast Urban Taskforce's submission earlier this year to Federal Treasury listed a series of recommendations
- Allocate $10 billion over 3 years to a Housing Infrastructure Acceleration Fund
- $2 billion to a Western Sydney Housing and Jobs fund
- A $2 billion regional acceleration fund
- Expand the HAFF to stimulate market housing and not just social and
- Tax concessions for identified priority housing precincts
- Incentivise the States to remove stamp duty
To read Urban Taskforce’s pre-budget submission to the Albanese Government, click the following link:
With the 1.2 million new homes target officially in doubt, the Albanese Government must revisit the $3 billion “New Home Bonus” which would only be allocated if States achieved more than their specific targets under the original target of 1 million new homes.
This fund should be used to incentivise the States and Territories to consider further reform to stimulate supply - removing planning red tape, embracing pro housing tax reform and removing a raft of fees, taxes and charges that impact feasibility.
It must be paid up-front.
Recalibrating this existing fund and enhancing it with a range of targeted infrastructure funding is how the Albanese Government can be a genuine player in solving the housing supply crisis.
Academic treatises without concrete sets of recommendations simply gives the Commonwealth a free pass to continue to navel gaze, duck shove and buck pass. Rather than re-hash every academic work on the history of housing supply, perhaps the crisis we are in requires practical measures. The Council need go no further than the fortnightly publication of the ULN for practical policy proposals for planning reform and housing supply.
After all,, everything else notwithstanding, you can't build new homes without an approval.
Very disappointing indeed.
To read the full report, click the following link
https://nhsac.gov.au/sites/nhsac.gov.au/files/2024-05/state-of-the-housing-system-2024.pdf
5. NSW Government Architect releases good design housing map
DPHI have released a housing map showcasing more than 100 examples of what they consider to be well designed low and mid-rise housing across NSW.
By navigating the map, specific development can be viewed, along with project case studies.
To read the housing map, click the following link
6. Walker Corporation to inject $150 million in water infrastructure funding to fast-track housing at Appin
On a day when Sydney pauses to honour the life of achievement of the late Lang Walker AO with a memorial service at Sydney’s Town Hall, Walker’s Appin project is a fine example of a collaboration between government agencies and the private sector to bring forward the delivery of housing through innovative solutions to infrastructure.
Public Private partnerships, if executed properly, ensure an efficient allocation of resources and expertise, save taxpayer’s huge infrastructure bills, and deliver critical infrastructure in a more timely fashion.
An artist’s impression of the Future Appin water facility
Yet PPP like arrangements have dropped off the radar in recent times – for reasons we are still unclear about.
That is why it was good to see the recent MoU signed between Walker, Sydney Water and private water infrastructure provider coNEXA that could deliver more than 12,000 new homes almost a decade earlier than originally anticipated.
Partnerships between the Government and the private sector have the potential to deliver innovation and sustainable solutions to infrastructure which will bring online more housing more quickly.
As Walker Corporation CEO, David Gallant says:
All those involved are to be congratulated for thinking outside the box when it comes to paying for and delivering housing and job enabling infrastructure.
To read more on the MoU, click the following link:
7. Randwick council knocks back student housing metres from main UNSW campus
Councils continue to protest that they are being unfairly blamed for the housing supply crisis. But decisions by Randwick Council this week illustrates the apparent madness into which many NIMBY councils have descended.
Randwick Council– opposing significant student accommodation opposite the UNSW campus
With a lack of appropriate housing for university students, UNSW has proposed a dedicated apartment complex one a car park – right across from the main university campus - on the light rail, to accommodate 1,066 students. Council wants to cut that number back by two thirds!
An utterly shameful decision by a Council which illustrates the fundamental issues with having these repeat offenders any say on housing.
For good measure – Council also voted to oppose the City of Sydney’s proposal to convert half of Moore Park golf course into public open space, and a commercial development in Bayside Council. Though admittedly they have form on this – unsuccessfully trying to block a development in City of Sydney last year. Who knew the City of Sydney were setting the pace of housing supply?
8. Western Sydney road projects – pressure mounts on the Commonwealth and this month’s Federal Budget
The Daily Telegraph’s continues to maintain pressure on the Albanese Government - highlighting 10 critical road projects a report by an expert panel (established by the Federal Government in 2022 to assess Western Sydney transport needs) said was critical to the future of Greater Western Sydney. In the April 2023 report, key road projects include:
- Western City Road Transport Network Development
- Richmond Road (and Windsor Road)
- Mamre Road (stage 2)
- Elizabeth Drive upgrade
- Cambridge Avenue, Glenfield
- Northern Road Upgrade (Borrowdale to Londonderry)
- Spring Farm Parkway (stage 2) and link road to Appin Road (east west link)
- Menangle Road
- Outer Sydney Orbital corridor preservation
Mamre Road – needs urgent upgrading
Many of these projects are logically outcomes of a new western Sydney Airport. While the new airport is progressing full steam ahead, there is a distinct lack of urgency on many of the secondary roads which if upgraded will underpin a housing and jobs boom around the new airport.
The Federal Government cutting funding for the M7-M12 interchange and the ongoing obsession with high-speed rail is not a good look with an election getting closer and Western Sydney a key battleground region.
There is growing frustration with the lack of action currently being demonstrated by Federal Infrastructure Minister when it comes to these bread-and-butter infrastructure priorities. No response to a year-old document she commissioned makes for poor optics and a growing sense of a document gathering dust on the shelf.
A strong commitment to these projects is desperately required in this month’s Federal budget to disperse these growing concerns.
To read the April 2023 expert panel report commissioned by the Federal Government, click the following link.
9. Mapping TODs – unlocking conversations and saving time through data driven decisions
In an immaculate piece of timing, Urban Taskforce held a morning tea presentation from Planning &Co’s Tom Goode and Giraffe’s Rob Asher which unpacked the potential and challenges of the NSW Government’s Transport Oriented Development reforms.
It was standing room only, which reflected the high level of interest in industry on how the Government’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 reforms will play out.
After Tom set the scene, Rob Asher showed what Giraffe’s mapping tool could do – using the Tier 2 Killara TOD and the Crows Nest Tier 1 accelerated precinct as on the ground examples.
The Giraffe tool quickly unlocks conversations around potential yield – bring in a variety of inputs – heights, densities, set backs and lot widths, as well as the plethora of ADG restrictions.
These technologies centre around making data driven decisions and can save developers and planners time and money.
Questions around the TODs remain – with big questions how affordable housing provisions will impact feasibility, and the willingness of councils to look at section 4.6 variances to underpin better outcomes.
With the Giraffe tool unlocking conversations in a simple and pragmatic way, the one big question hanging over the TODs remain the housing targets. This in a critical input that will have a major bearing on how the reforms, and the conversations around these precincts unfold.
Thanks to Allens for hosting a fascinating insight into how the TOD reforms could play out on the ground.
10. Quote of the week
AFR's Jennifer Hewett is spot on when it comes to the fundamental problem affecting housing in Australia.
To read the full article, click the following link
11. Upper House report tabled on the future public transport needs of Western Sydney
This week we saw yet another report showing the chasm between rhetoric and reality when it comes to transport infrastructure for Western Sydney.
Urban Taskforce’s own submission called for an acceleration of transport infrastructure to underpin housing and jobs. We also used the inquiry to underline the importance of delivering on the outcomes of business cases that underpin huge infrastructure commitments, as well as a greater sense of coordination.
Of the report’s 20 recommendations, the most pertinent was recommendations 4 and 5:
The Government has until 29 July 2024 to respond to the report.
To read the full report, click the following link
Report No. 21 - PC 6 - Current and future public transport needs in Western Sydney.pdf (nsw.gov.au)
12. Hunter Street metro approval – great! Why can’t the housing sector get similar treatment?
Source: City of Sydney council
This is a good development by TfNSW around the Hunter Street metro site, but Urban Taskforce wonders why the private sector, the ones who will need to deliver the housing and jobs demanded from the National Housing Accord, doesn’t get similar fast track treatment when it comes to planning approvals?
To read more on the proposal, click the following link
Sydney Metro: Hunter Street CBD tower plans revealed (smh.com.au)
13. K&L Gates assessment of Federal BTR legislation – some cracks in an otherwise solid foundation
K&L Gates have identified some cracks in the BTR legislation
A typically forensic assessment of the Albanese Government’s Build to Rent tax concession legislation by K&L Gates. Last Budget the Commonwealth announced it would reduction the MIT withholding rate for foreign investors from 30% to 15%, as well as increasing capital expenditure deductions from 2.5% to 4%.
While calling the foundations strong, the report identified a number of key deficiencies that were potential “cracks” in the strong foundations:
- Distortion between BTR and commercial or industrial real estate
- Affordable housing should be looked at separately
- Unclear why clawback is required for Reduced WHT for rent
- Too many “hair triggers” for the clawback
- Reduced WHT not applicable to sale proceeds
- 15-year time frame for reduced WHT
- Lack of clarity and flexibility around key requirements
If these matters were left unaddressed,
Last week Urban Taskforce summed up the legislation as a case of one step forward, two step back. If Parliament can iron out the deficiencies in the current Bill, there is a hope that the legislation can make a real difference when it comes to investment in the emerging BTR sector.
To read the K&L Gates analysis of the Bill, click the following link
14. Other news
- NSW Planning Minister pushes ahead on AI to support a faster planning system!
Councils will soon have the opportunity to trial AI in their local planning systems following a $5.6 million investment from the NSW Government.
In the midst of a housing crisis and a shortage of planners, the NSW Government has been looking for new and innovative ways to support councils and speed up development assessment times.
The “Scull-bot” as the tool has become known, is planned to be rolled out after testing with volunteer councils.
It will never replace the assessment process completely, particularly in the context of the topography of a city like Sydney, but it can certainly speed things up … a lot!
The AI in NSW Planning project was tasked with identifying areas of the development application assessment that were causing unnecessary delays and would benefit from the implementation of AI.
Three technologies have now been identified and will be available to councils for trial through the AI Solutions Panel and Early Adopter Grant Program.
This is a progressive response to an intractable problem and it is welcome.
To read the Minister for Planning’s press release, click the following link:
https://www.urbantaskforce.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/120B2802.pdf
15. Urban Taskforce in the news
- NSW Government must push back against NIMBY opposition over transport-oriented development
Tom spoke with radio station 2SM exhorting the Government to press ahead with the Tier 2 reforms, despite the inevitable NIMBY noise that will be created around some locations:
2. Tier 2 TOD’s a start but can be improved
CEO Tom Forrest called for great heights to unlock higher densities to ensure the success of the Tier 2 TOD program. Unnecessary straight jacket approaches will inevitably impact feasibility and under deliver housing in well located areas:
16. Members in the News
*Please note, the links used below may be paywall protected.
“… Stockland said consumers needed a stable, or falling, interest rate environment for sales to increase in Australia’s housing market…” read more...
AFR, April 29
“... Urban Property Group’s chief executive Patrick Elias said Parramatta was ripe for BTR development as it had sites that had laid dormant and were ripe for transformation…" read more…
AFR, April 30
“...Dexus will install commercial-grade batteries to store energy from roof-top solar in all its new industrial buildings…" read more…
.The Urban Developer, May 1
“… Agreements allowing development on government-owned land are already set to yield almost 1300 new homes on three sites following a series of deals with heavyweight developer Billbergia, worth $1.3 billion…" read more…
The Daily Telegraph, May 3
Phone (02) 9238 3955
Email admin@urbantaskforce.com.au
Web urbantaskforce.com.au
DISCLAIMER: All representations and information contained in this document are made in good faith. The information may contain material from other sources including media releases, official correspondence and publications. Urban Taskforce Australia Ltd accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any information contained in this document.