19 June 2026

In this Edition...

1. Albo’s folded, war’s ended, oil's flowing

2. Interest rates – the big factor impacting buyer confidence and housing supply feasibility

3. Feasibility and Affordable Housing: they don't mix!

... and much, much more.

4. Mosman continues to consult on its “putting all its chickens” masterplan
5. Waverley NIMBYs embrace AI
6. This is how you do it:  Queensland bolstering Residential Activation Fund
7. NSW Budget preview
8. Multiplex gets snapped up by Obayashi
9. Urban Taskforce members say hi to Hyegrove
10. DCA set to commence – find out more
11. Council Watch
      - Does Ryde Council want you as a resident?
12. Members in the news

1. Albo’s folded, war’s ended, oil's flowing

With the weight of the sniggering derision of Australia on his shoulders, Anthony Albanese has acknowledged the negative impact of his CGT changes on small businesses, startups, and discretionary trusts, and has… basically … folded!

He had to!  He had been reduced to a meme.

What we are left with is bemusement that he has introduced changes to negative gearing and CGT at all, particularly, as the Budget papers concede, as they will have a negative impact on housing supply.  The entire “intergenerational equity” schtick has been eviscerated – and these changes do nothing but recover a small portion of lost political skin.

We remain thankful that the Commonwealth heeded Urban Taskforce Australia’s calls for the exemption of new-builds from the changes, as this will have a stimulus effect for investment in newly built housing supply.  

However, the Government has not seen fit to revise the definition of a “new build” – such that off the plan investment purchases that saw a contract entered into prior to budget night (i.e. deposit paid), will not be considered “new builds” for the purpose of the changes to CGT and negative gearing announced in the Budget, even though those properties will not be completed for occupation for years from now.  This reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of how the property market works.

The paltry $2 billion for housing-related infrastructure is welcome, but it needs to be multiplied by 10 to have any chance of dealing with the infrastructure funding deficit that needs to be bridged to house our growing population.

The disastrous mismanagement of the Budget has combined with public indifference towards the Coalition to see Pauline Hanson’s popularity rise to be the preferred Prime Minister.

Time will tell if she can maintain that support after Labor’s backflip on the Budget and if the Coalition ever removes its training wheels.

This week saw good news with an MoU finally signed by both Iran and the USA.  We hope that this will result in a lasting peace for the region but remain nervous about that prospect.

Finally, we also saw a shift in economic sentiment this week, with the mood of economists “adjusting” towards predictions of a downward swing in interest rates in the second half of this year. 

2. Interest rates – the big factor impacting buyer confidence and housing supply feasibility

The RBA decided on Tuesday this week not to increase interest rates this time around, leaving the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35 per cent. 

After three rate rises already this year, that’s good news and many economists are now predicting the next shift in interest rates to be downwards.  We’ll have to wait and see. 

RBA Governor Michelle Bullock remains concerned that inflation is not yet under control.

Currently the headline CPI is running at 4.2%.

The trimmed-mean core inflation rate – the underlying inflation with the most extreme increases and decreases removed – remains high at 3.4% above the central bank’s target of 2-3%. 

The Australian economy is sending mixed signals A rise in the unemployment rate to 4.3%; the 4.75% boost to the minimum wage approved by Fair Work Australia for FY27. How that will all wash out into the numbers is anyone’s guess.

It looks likely that the fuel excise duty reduction will be dropped at the end of June but even that is unclear, with the Government completely rattled by the response to its Budget and by the rise of Pauline Hanson.

Three of the four major retail banks are currently predicting two (ANZ and CBA) or three (NAB) cuts in 2027, taking the cash rate to 3.85% and 3.60% respectively, while the more pessimistic Westpac is still punting on two rises in August and September this year, to take us to 4.85%. 

Time will tell. 

3. Feasibility and Affordable Housing - they don't mix!

Affordable housing policies are an ongoing thorn in the side of housing supply, with state and local governments alike making assumptions about what is feasible without discussing it with the development sector. 

The HDA heralded a fresh approach! It called for EOIs from the private sector, who would advise what is feasible, given the uplift associated with the proposal. 

Then DPHI undertook a review of the HDA, and (in retrospect predictably) did everything it could to turn the tables back to the old world that created the housing supply crisis in the first place, by mandating affordable housing, in perpetuity, at a minimum of the rate prescribed in the council LEP.

Thankfully, the Premier pulled the bureaucrats back into line, saying that he did not want to put the HDA on a diet, he wanted it put on steroids!

In the meantime, right across Greater Sydney, councils are setting new affordable housing levies which have significant negative impacts upon housing project delivery. 

The policy of supporting more affordable housing is worthy in its intent – obtain housing that can be rented out to people on lower incomes in areas they otherwise might not be able to afford – but the implementation is having the opposite effect. 

By taxing new home buyers to pay for this affordable housing, they drop out of the market, reducing feasibility, and stopping the development progressing.  You get no new affordable housing and no market housing either. DPHI's preferred policy thinking is what created the crisis of supply and affordability in the first place. 

This financial year alone, we’ve seen planning proposals for affordable housing from Randwick, Ku-ring-gai, City of Sydney, Ryde (see Council Watch), Canada Bay, and the Inner West, and now Woollahra, Lane Cove, and (soon) Mosman are joining in. 

These policies are developed in isolation from industry; they lack ground truthing with data from Quantity Surveyors, valuers and cost estimators; and they result in the worsening of feasibility problems which are already constraining housing supply. 

The affordable housing agenda is a complete mess.

The definitions and rules that apply to the massive Commonwealth HAFF scheme are completely different to those in NSW.

The successful Infill Affordable Housing Bonus introduced by the Minns Government in late 2023 involves a trade off between an increase in height and density of between 20-30% and affordable housing of between 10 and 15% of total development yield being made available for management by a CHP for 15 years, before they revert to market housing (though in many cases they will be sold to CHPs at a discount, often with support from the HAFF.

However, the Minns Government implemented a different policy for TODs – requiring affordable housing to be gifted to a CHP in the form of GFA dedication or cash payment.

For HDA EOIs, DPHI is pushing for council LEP in-perpetuity affordable housing rates, to be the minimum. Disaster!

Confused? Everyone is!

But one thing is certain, the current state of affordable housing policy is damaging both housing supply and delivery against housing targets.  Talk about maintaining feasibility is cheap when it comes from the same government department that has comprehensively failed to consider feasibility over the last 15 years.

To date, the NSW Government has witnessed the difficulty in getting projects to stack up and has sought to break through some of the biggest barriers by pushing through bi-partisan planning reforms, establishing the HDA, setting up a one stop shop to deal with agency referrals and concurrences (the Development Co-ordination Authority – DCA), creating pattern books to make simple designs easier to use, fast tracking low rise assessments through a new targeted assessment method, introducing the low and medium-rise housing policies, and providing a pre-sale finance guarantee for some developments. 

Affordable housing will continue to be a challenge until all parties get a better understanding of the impacts of overzealous policies on project feasibility. 

Consider this:

The same Woollahra Council that is now seeking to hit new home buyers with affordable housing levies has a history of two-faced hypocrisy. The bold headline in this  Sydney Morning Herald article tells the story:  

Like many councils, Woollahra has zero commitment to affordable housing.  It is nothing but a tool to stop housing supply – and it is working because DPHI has been taken for a ride!

4. Mosman continues to consult on its “putting all its chickens” masterplan

Earlier this year, Mosman Council floated a new Masterplan, the people’s own alternative to the allegedly egregious LMR policies that were set to rain disaster down onto the heads of the good burghers of their LGA.

Numerous submissions were made in response to that effort – not least from Urban Taskforce Australia – and Council has been crafting a position inspired by those community engagement efforts, with the voice of the entitled few echoing in the ears of the Mosman Council planning team. 

Now, Council advises us that its 8-Step strategy will move to Step 2. 

On Tuesday, 30 June, Council will have an Extraordinary Council Meeting (ECM) to consider its preferred option for LMR alternative zoning.  The papers aren’t available yet, so we don’t know what staff will be recommending, but we’re pretty sure it won't be the status-quo, as was made clear in a new brochure on the changes: 

Why wasn’t the LMR included as an option in the consultation?

Council resolved to prepare this masterplan precisely in response to the LMR, having assessed that its blanket controls would have unacceptable impacts on local amenity. 

We appreciate that our own plan will also bring change – but these are considered, evidence-based trade-offs, deliberately directed to areas close to major transport and main arterial routes rather than spread through established residential streets. 

Re-listing the LMR as an ‘option’ would run counter to the very reason the masterplan was started. 

Council advises that there are detailed reports being developed, as yet not available. Detailed studies are meant to inform masterplans, not to explain them after the fact. 

5. Waverley NIMBYs embrace AI

In an exclusive from the newshounds at the Wentworth Courier, it appears that opposition to development in Bondi Junction is becoming high-tech.  Despite assurances to the contrary, Save Bondi Junction is alleged to have created an AI tool to prepare letters in opposition to the proposal. 

Respondents can select the particular issues they wish to highlight, before the letter is generated by the tool.  The Courier reports that the submissions are creating a headache for the Council, which has no way of knowing whether the letters have been sent from an actual individual or not. 

Creator of the tool, local Catharine Munro, argues that it is “just a Squarespace website”, but it writes the submission without any further input needed by the complainant. 

We in the publishing team of Urban Taskforce Australia newsletter, are no strangers to the occasional ChatGPT imagery (I know – it’s hard to tell) and admire the brazenness of those seeking to use it to make it easier to critique the Bondi Junction plan. 

Council should be hearing directly from residents, not from robots.  Housing supply and submissions to the planning system are not a joke.  These AI generated submissions should be summarily ignored.

6. This is how you do it:  Queensland bolstering Residential Activation Fund

The $2 billion Fund aims to unlock thousands of additional homes for Queenslanders, receiving significant interest from both councils and industry in Round One, and unlocking more than 98,000 homes. 

RAF pays for essential infrastructure like water, sewerage, roads, and power to support growing communities, under the Securing Our Housing Foundations Plan, which aims to deliver 1 million homes by 2044. 

Round Two will see funding doubled from $500 million to $1 billion to address growing demand – already 209 submissions have been received. 

It shows that Queensland is taking housing-enabling infrastructure seriously and is backing it with targeted funding.  Perhaps Premier Crisafulli can share this insight with his southern colleagues? 

7. NSW Budget preview

It’s NSW Budget day next Tuesday, so expect to see a bunch of pre-Budget leaks to pique community’s interest. 

On the development sector front, not so much – so far at least! 

The Treasurer has previously announced the expansion of the Pre-sale Finance Guarantee and matched funding for widening Windsor Road. 

Yesterday, it was announced that there will be a significant cull in State Executive Service numbers, particularly in Transport for NSW, which is expected to save more than $120 million per year, but there is no indication to date as to where those savings might land. 

Urban Taskforce made a pre-Budget submission to the NSW Treasury late last year, in which we called for:  

• the deferral of the payment all local and state infrastructure charges as well as affordable housing contributions, from CC (before the dwellings are built) to OC (just before the dwellings are occupied)
• a freeze of HPC charges till the end of the Accord;
• a reduction in Sydney Water infrastructure charges;
• a serious review of the anti-downsizer, anti-environment, and family stamp duty and land tax systems;
• changes to affordable housing policies to make them consistent with the Government’s own infill affordable housing policy;
• the greater use of Crown land for housing development (the Government under the leadership of Minister Kamper has already done a lot in this space);
• more up-front funding or financing from Government for housing related infrastructure;
• a review of restrictive local DCP regulatory controls;
• resolution of building legislation and the lack of adequate DLI insurance policies; 
• the introduction of compulsory mediation on building defect disputes; and
• initiatives to bring class 1 builders back to the class 2 residential market. 

Some of these proposals have progressed since we made our submission earlier this year, but we will review the Budget papers with interest next week to see where Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s priorities lie when it comes to residential development. 

8. Multiplex gets snapped up by Obayashi

Multiplex has been sold by Canadian asset manager Brookfield. 

Japan’s Obayashi Corporation, which acted as the overall construction consultant, planner, and joint-venture builder alongside Multiplex to deliver Stadium Australia, is a very welcome new partner. 

Obayashi is the third largest construction company in Japan.

Obayashi’s operations in Australia are currently limited to a joint venture with Built on the Atlassian headquarters.  When that project ends, it is understood that Multiplex will become the sole Australian arm of the company. 

The sale price was strong and reflects confidence from Japan is the future of Multiplex - a 64-year-old company - allowing it to focus on its construction activities under the ownership of a company that understands construction. 

9. Urban Taskforce members say hi to Hyegrove

The site – a 99-year leasehold from Club Willoughby, which was the beneficiary of a complete rebuild and refresh – has six buildings, including the Club and a commercial/healthcare centre, with a mix of independent living and private care accommodation. 

The Twilight tour group participants were taking photos of individual light fittings, floor coverings, or detailing, so the trip may inspire a few new developments, and perhaps an application or two for residency! 

Urban Taskforce thanks our hosts Patrick and Troy Abolakian of Hyecorp for their hospitality at Hyegrove and the generosity of their time.  We congratulate them for delivering a project that not only fits in with, but enhances, the local community. 

10. DCA set to commence – find out more

It is sharing information ahead of its launch to educate the public about how it will operate.  This includes providing advance copies of the EP&A Regulation and State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) changes and the State Referral Provisions. 

The DCA has also released a Submissions Report in response to the exhibition of its proposed operational changes, which is on the NSW Planning Portal.  More information will be released over coming weeks. 

Next Monday, 22 June, from 10.30am to 12pm, the DCA will also be running a webinar for industry and developers to explain how it will operate, and what people may need to do before 1 July.  You can register here for that event. 

Any questions about the DCP can be answered by the team at dca.enquiries@dphi.nsw.gov.au. 

11. Council Watch

Does Ryde Council want you as a resident?

It’s official.  Ryde likes (some) key workers. On 30 April, Ryde City Council passed its Key Workers Affordable Housing Policy. 

The policy, which was on exhibition last year, “guides the City of Ryde’s decision making and advocacy in the provision, management, and maintenance of affordable housing for key workers within the City of Ryde Local Government Area.”

Essentially, Council is seeking to increase the long-term supply of affordable rental housing for key workers.  In perpetuity. 

The goal is ambitious.  To lift from the 75 affordable dwellings delivered to date under the 2016 Affordable Housing Policy (the aim had been 750 by 2031) to 1,000 affordable dwellings by 2035. 

Council wants to go from an average of 7.5 in perpetuity affordable dwellings per year since 2016, to 102.8 in perpetuity affordable dwellings per year in the next 9 years.  A rise in affordable dwellings of 925.  A 12-fold increase in delivery. 

What’s even more concerning is just who Council thinks should be eligible for affordable rental housing: 

• Teachers (all types from early childhood to secondary school and special education);
• Frontline emergency workers (including ambulance officers and paramedics, firefighters and police officers);
• Registered and enrolled nurses;
• Educational aides;
• Social workers;
• Child carers;
• Aged and disability carers; and
• Personal care workers. 

In other words, mostly professionals and over-represented by public servants. 

Where are the cleaners?  The tradies?  The council workers?  The labourers?  The retail workers?  The receptionists?  The construction workers?  The factory workers?  The security guards?  The baristas? 

Perhaps they don’t measure up to what the elites in Ryde Council think are worthy? Councils shouldn’t be picking winners. 

It makes no sense for individual councils to decree from on high which categories of workers they think should be able to afford to live within their LGAs. 

If affordable housing policy is to be driven by a definition of key worker – there needs to be a state and nationally accepted definition. 

No dartboard decisions of who is in and who is out.  No selective philanthropy. 

12. Members in the news

*Please note these articles may be paywall protected

“Plans by Central Element for a scheme in Sydney’s Lavender Bay reveal a significant pivot from the application originally endorsed by the Housing Delivery Authority.”  read more… 

The single 20-storey tower of 140 apartments, 300 metres from Milsons Point Station is now proposed to be two towers of 32 and 23 storeys, with 160 apartments, which Central Element believes will result in less overshadowing.  

The Urban Developer, 18 June

“National grocery giant Woolworths has proposed a five-storey apartment building, 52 townhouses and a supermarket for a vacant block at Moncrieff in the northern Canberra district of Gungahlin.”  read more… 

The two-storey retail centre, with 5,711 sqm of floor space, will be supplemented with a five-storey apartment building containing 42 units, including 16 affordable homes and extensive parking. 

The Urban Developer, 18 June

“Urban Property Group’s former Wollongong gasworks precinct could grow to 807 apartments and co-living rooms across five buildings under plans for its $235-million second stage now on exhibition.”  read more… 

Keira Place, “a world within Wollongong” will be a two-stage mix of 150 apartments, including 27 affordable homes, co-living, retail, and communal recreation. 

The Urban Developer, 18 June

“Japanese-owned beer and soft drinks giant Asahi is adding considerable fizz to Goodman Group’s Redbank Motorway Estate south-west of Brisbane.”  read more… 

The brewer is developing a $150 million, 48,500 sqm distribution facility at Goodman’s estate that is expected to be fully operational by 2028. 

The Urban Developer, 17 June

“The final stage of a master planned, $870 million residential community by Western Sydney developer ALAND is underway, set to deliver more than 1,700 homes.”  read more… 

The Schofields multi-stage project launched in 2019, creating 3,300 jobs, and will feature green spaces and housing close to Schofields Village shops, train stations, and the Norwest and Sydney Business Park employment areas.  

Daily Telegraph, 15 June

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