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
17 November 2023
In this Edition...
- Urban Taskforce Property Person of the Year – Fouad Deiri OAM
- NSW Premier to shine a light on the performance of the NSW planning system
- Urban Taskforce pushes State Government to take greater control of the planning system and cut through red tape
- Government to reduce stormwater charges for Mamre Road precinct
- RBA Statement on Monetary Policy – Housing supply crisis is driving inflation which in turn is pushing interest rates up
- Infrastructure cuts to M12/M7 interchange – what do they think they are doing?
- Urban Taskforce makes the case for public private partnerships.
- NSW Opposition must avoid the dog whistle on immigration
- Chris Richardson adds his voice to the debate with a withering assessment on housing supply and planning – “decades of dumb”
- Rental affordability deteriorates in Sydney
- Campbelltown Mayor backs density along Campbelltown rail corridor
- Teals anti-housing policy creates existential threat
- NSW Coastal Design Guidelines finalised
- Council Watch
- UTA in the news
Members in the news
1. Urban Taskforce Property Person of the Year – Fouad Deiri OAM
Vince Sorrenti & Fouad Deiri OAM
A packed ballroom at the Four Seasons was the scene for a night to recognise and honour the achievements of the Urban Taskforce Property Person of the Year, Chairman and Founder of Deicorp, Fouad Deiri OAM.
With the challenges facing the property development sector right now, the night was an opportunity to gather and celebrate the achievements and community spirit of Fouad Deiri. We followed his path from a Blacktown apprentice carpenter in the late 80’s to now as Chair of a property powerhouse pushing ahead and delivering thousands of the new well located homes Sydney so desperately needs.
While the bean counters are finalising the accounts, the evening was a great success for the two Charities, Warah Society and St Vincents Prostate Cancer Research.
Hon Stephen Kamper, MP, Nick Mundine, Lani Tuitavake - Aboriginal Housing Corporation & Fouad Deiri OAM
David Tanevski, Fouad Deiri OAM, Professor Phillip Stricker - St Vincent's Prostate Cancer Research Centre, Delia Gray - The Warrah Scoiety
2. NSW Premier to shine a light on the performance of the NSW planning system
You don’t need a laser beam to know that the performance of the NSW Planning system is woeful, but Urban Taskforce nonetheless welcomes the Premier’s commitment to shine a spot light on the various data coming out of DPE and councils.
The commitment to publishing league tables to compare NSW’ performance against other States is also very welcome. It represents a reversal of the former Government’s position where they sought to hide an embarrassing report commissioned by NSW Treasury – the Mecone Report - which showed up the NSW planning system as the worst and slowest in every single category of planning assessment and approvals.
Urban Taskforce has also noted that while DPE and Councils cop the brunt of the grief, they often get blamed for the poor performance of State Government infrastructure agencies – which also must be held to account.
There should be a timeframe for agencies like Sydney Water and Roads to respond to housing proposals. This should also be monitored and reported on.
The language of the Premier continues to be bold and positive in the housing space.
The NSW Premier’s address centred around housing and the need to move beyond treating parts of Sydney like museum pieces. It was a pitch to a living Sydney that needed more housing to survive:
To read the Premier’s full address, click the link below:
Chris Minns' Bradfield Oration
Now what is required is for all public servants in NSW to fully come to grips with the intent of the Premier’s repeated messages about housing supply, and get on with the job of delivering a suite of reforms that work and will deliver the housing needed.
For too long DPE has sought to tread the middle road and not upset stakeholders. This has created the housing supply crisis and the Premier has made it clear that his Government is opposed to NIMBYs, and puts housing supply above other considerations.
Also welcome in the Premier’s address was the acknowledgement that housing supply was being designed to death. The announcement that design competitions for high rise buildings will no longer be necessary provided the developer selects an architect from a pre-approved list is a welcome reform. This will reduce the planning assessment timeframe for well over a year. Urban Taskforce has been pushing for the sensible reform for more than a decade.
Welcome too was the support from the NSW Opposition. To solve the housing supply crisis will require ongoing bi-partisanship on tis critical issue for NSW.
To read Urban Taskforce’s release welcoming the intentions contained within the Premier’s Bradfield oration, click the link below:
Media Release - Premier’s Bradfield oration a clear statement of intent for housing supply
3. Urban Taskforce pushes State Government to take greater control of the planning system and cut through red tape
Urban Taskforce CEO Tom Forrest led calls for the Minns Government to follow the Queensland and Victorian Governments' lead and take back more control of the planning system.
The Victorian Government’s Housing Statement, released in September, will clear the backlogs and put the Minister for Planning at the centre of decision making for developments in Melbourne with construction costs over $50 million, and $15 million for regional Victoria.
Similarly the Queensland Government is pushing through reforms that allow the Minister for Planning to call in projects for assessment by the Department.
NSW needs to serious look at these reforms if it is to have a chance of achieving 376,000 new dwellings required under the National Housing Accord in the five years to 2029.
For a start, the NSW Government needs to look at the byzantine system of planning panels, which creates greater uncertainty, complexity, and time to gain development approval.
Average assessment times for regional planning panels stood at 332 days – the worst performance was the Northern Regional Planning Panel at 569 days!
Source: DPE Annual report 2021-22
CEO Tom Forrest said the current planning system was ill equipped to deal with the housing supply crisis:
To read the Daily Telegraph’s article covering Urban Taskforce’s push to remove red tape holding back housing approvals, click the link below:
*Please note this article may be paywall protected.
4. Government to reduce stormwater charges for Mamre Road precinct
The Minns Government’s decision to cap the stormwater bond for the Mamre Road precinct, at the doorstep of to the new Western Sydney airport, shows it is starting to listen to the concerns of industry on the cumulative impacts of infrastructure costs on the delivery of industrial warehousing and logistics jobs.
The vast majority of the funds raised through these new charges will not even be spent on water infrastructure. Over 70% of the funds raised will be used for bio-diversity offsets. This is a tax on jobs to pay a tax on infrastructure. It is madness.
While the cap will reduce stormwater charges for the precinct from $135 to $80 a square metre, this new charge will still cripple investment into jobs in Western Sydney. The charges are still to high.
Sydney Water has released its draft Stormwater Developer Works Policy for the Aerotropolis and Mamre Road precincts for comment. Consultation is open until Thursday December 14. To read the draft policy, click the link below:
5. RBA Statement on Monetary Policy – Housing supply crisis is driving inflation which in turn is pushing interest rates up
Planning policy makers should break the habit of a lifetime and actually read the RBA’s Statement on Monetary Policy released in the wake of the 25 basis point increase in the cash rate last week.
Alarm bells are certainly going off inside the Reserve Bank of Australia over the shocking failure of housing supply to meet demand. The unexpected spike in housing prices is supporting the wealth of some households (read boomers and those own their home) who are then spending more and adding to inflationary pressures.
On the flipside, those who can least afford it are faced with skyrocketing rents and home loan repayments.
The lack of housing supply is exacerbating social cleavages across the nation and creating long term damage to the economy. The complexity of the planning system and the failure to ensure sufficient housing supply has directly resulted in rising interest rates and all its associated misery.
To address rent inflation and place downward pressure on housing prices, a complete change in attitude must be applied to planning controls. The entire system is build around an army of consultants and multiple decision makers. It’s time to get serious and cut through the red tape.
To read the RBA’s November Statement on Monetary Policy, click the link below:
6. Infrastructure cuts to M12/M7 interchange – what do they think they are doing?
The Federal Government this week released its Infrastructure Policy Statement.
While a framework is welcomed, news that a raft of critical roads infrastructure projects – particularly the M7-M12 interchange - will lose Commonwealth funding is madness.
This reckless act calls into question the sovereign risk of investing in assets. This is a project which the Commonwealth had signed up to, contracts have been let and works have begun. What do they think they are doing?
A cognitive dissonance seems to have befallen the Albanese Government – on the one hand it is calling for all shoulders to the wheel to address the housing supply crisis and signing the states up to ambitious housing supply targets, yet on the other hand, it is pulling funding from these types of critical infrastructure projects.
NSW has been left with the bill for the M7-M12 interchange
With NSW left to pick up the entire bill for the interchange – this could have significant knock on effects.
The entire infrastructure funding of key road upgrades around the new Western Sydney Airport is turning into a mess. The jobs around the airport won’t come till the Elizabeth Drive upgrade is complete. NSW and Western Sydney can’t afford to lose this critical funding from its roads infrastructure budget. If anything, we need more funding, not less.
To read Urban Taskforce’s release on the decision to cut funding for the M7/M12 interchange, click the link below:
Media Release - M7/M12 interchange critical to Western Sydney jobs and homes
7. Urban Taskforce makes the case for public private partnerships.
The old Sydney Entertainment Centre… a well executed PPP could deliver a new one
The Daily Telegraph approached Urban Taskforce on the need to build a new outdoor entertainment area in Sydney - to replace the Sydney Entertainment Centre that was torn down in 2015.
For decades, under Labor and Coalition governments, NSW was at the forefront of delivering Private-Public-Partnership (PPPs) projects.
The Sydney Harbour Tunnel, the M4 and M5; the Millennium Trains and the Waratah rail fleet; Sydney’s Olympic Stadium and the Multi-use indoor arena – all fine examples of the private sector delivering projects on Government land with a limited lease term (or concession term) and the right to charge a fee (or toll) to recoup the investment.
This brought the innovation, discipline and skills of the private sector together with public land to deliver public outcomes without blowing out the infrastructure investment caps for the government.
But over time, we saw the diminution of value from PPPs. Ill-considered projects like the cross-city tunnel saw the private sector lose hundreds of millions. Then the North Connex project included provisions for toll rises above the rate of inflation. Rampant toll rises on other projects, combined with disastrous outcomes with the poor management of the light rail maintenance, ferry procurement and intercity rolling stock replacement, saw the public mood shift away from PPPs.
Perhaps there is time for a re-think. Over regulation has stifled outcomes in the property development space. The overuse of prescriptive height limits, density controls, controls over shadowing and the over regulation of design.
The creeping scope of under-employed bureaucrats in “placemaking” has effectively stifled genuine innovation and creativity. Why are we still referencing Centrepoint Tower when we consider height controls? Extra height means you can provide greater public benefits at the ground level. This could include the delivery of a new entertainment arena – much needed following the demise of the much-loved Entertainment Centre. Solves three problems: housing supply, high quality commercial office and retail space, plus a new arts and entertainment precinct.
Given the current fiscal constraints on Governments post COVID, the NSW Government should welcome private sector funds and do everything it can to deliver viable private and public outcomes. Get the “place makers” out of it and let the private sector come up with solutions, unencumbered by the mediocre vision of zealots.
CEO Tom Forrest said the NSW Government should conduct a feasibility study to identify potential sites:
To read the Daily Telegraph article arguing the case for a replacement of the old Entertainment Centre, click the link below:
*Please note this article may be paywall protected.
$500 million entertainment centre touted for Sydney’s CBD | The Courier Mail
8. NSW Opposition must avoid the dog whistle on immigration
Seeking to shift blame onto immigrants for the housing supply crisis is a bad look for the NSW Liberals.
The housing supply crisis did not simply appear when the Albanese Government started to welcome more immigrants to the country, in fact, it started well before the outbreak of COVID and was in part engendered by the policies of the Coalition in Canberra and on Macquarie Street.
- Skilled immigrants drive productivity.
- They have a high participation rate.
- They arrive already educated.
- They are healthy and are a low draw on health resources.
- Fee paying students fund our tertiary sector.
- Students fill the many vacant jobs in the hospitality sector.
- We need skilled trades and labourers to build our new homes, hospitals and schools.
The recent OECD report on Australia confirmed the importance of immigration to the Australian story and the ongoing productivity of the economy.
The Opposition Leader has form in backing NIMBY protests against well located housing in his own electorate of Cronulla. The irony is many of the apartments he has opposed are exactly what down-sizers from his electorate want – that’s why they sell-out (almost exclusively to locals) the minute they are completed.
Mr Speakman needs to avoid any temptation to play short term political games with housing supply and with migration, lest he be seen as a second-rate version of his erstwhile Shire colleague and one time Prime-Ministerial aspirant, Craig Kelly.
To read Urban Taskforce’s release cautioning politicians against ascribing blame for the housing supply crisis to those newly arrived on our shores, click here
Media Release - NSW Liberals must avoid “dog whistling” over population figures
ABC Radio interviewed CEO Tom Forrest who iterated the role of migration in boosting productivity:
The Opposition Leader should avail himself of CoreLogic’s reasoned assessment of immigration and housing, particularly the section where it talks about the trade-offs in reducing migration - where a temporary cap on migration introduces more volatility to the market.
To read Core Logic’s report, click the link below:
Five things to know about migration and the housing market | CoreLogic Australia
9. Chris Richardson withering assessment on housing supply – “decades of dumb”
It was only 2 years ago that the former Secretary of DPE claimed there was no housing supply crisis and accused the Urban Taskforce of sloganeering. How embarrassing!
No additional commentary is needed on this assessment of the planning system …
10. Rental affordability deteriorates in Sydney
The recently published Rental Affordability Index makes for some sombre reading. It shows rental affordability has deteriorated significantly in most capital cities – led by Sydney where rents are 13% up on the Index, published annually.
Greater Sydney is now level with Greater Hobart as the least affordable capital city with a median rental at $650 a week costing 29 per cent of the average renting household’s income.
In fact – NSW comprise 8 out of the 10 least affordable postcodes in the nation, with rents in these locations comprising more than 50% as a share of average rental household income.
The rental heat map shows a city where the eastern city has become out of reach for those of low to medium incomes – only 3 postcodes in the entire Sydney basin are considered very affordable:
SGS Economics and Planning, November 2023
Yet another report which clearly sets our the economic and social disaster that has befallen Australia, particularly Sydney, in terms of being able to access and pay for a basic good.
To read the Rental Affordability Index report and explore the data, click the link below:
11. Campbelltown Mayor backs density along Campbelltown rail corridor
Reimagining Campbelltown CBD: Source Campbelltown Council
While inner Sydney Mayors wring their hands and gnash their collective teeth over new housing, Campbelltown Mayor, Geroge Greiss, recognises the opportunity of transit-oriented development for a CBD like Campbelltown, as long as it is backed by infrastructure. The Mayor’s pitch was not just density done well, but density done differently:
The western suburb Mayors are refreshing in the generosity of their spirt and vision – seeing Western Sydney as part of a greater metropolis. It is time for the pampered inner city Mayors - who preside over an embarrassment of riches when it comes to infrastructure and amenity – to share this vision and collective responsibility to plan and build a better Sydney.
To read the Mayor’s opinion piece for the South West Voice, click the link below:
Bring on high density along Campbelltown rail corridor: mayor (southwestvoice.com.au)
12. Teals anti-housing policy creates existential threat
Some Teals have ridden the NIMBY anti-housing agenda with great political success.
Urban Taskforce noted with some irony that it is looking increasingly possible that either the Federal seat of Warringah or North Sydney could be abolished with the latest Federal redistribution because of a lack of residents! The poetic irony is delicious.
NSW and Victoria are both losing a seat, with Western Australia picking up one. The total number of seats in the House of Representatives is reducing from 151 to 150.
Population in Sydney’s north, eastern and inner west has stagnated in recent years (with NIMBYs led by the former Minister for Planning Rob Stokes, railing against new housing and the GCC setting ridiculously low population targets and even then, not enforcing them.)
It now looks likely that one of two North shore seats will have to go.
This could mean the Teal Member for Warringah Zali Steggall faces off against the Teal MP for North Sydney Kylea Tink.
If only some decent housing numbers were delivered over the past few years…
13. NSW Coastal Design Guidelines finalised
DPE have finalised NSW Coastal Design Guidelines 2023, which replacing the previous NSW Coastal Design Guidelines 2003.
All planning proposals in the NSW coastal zone must include provisions that give effect to, and are consistent with, section 3.2 of the NSW Coastal Design Guidelines 2023. Planning proposals must now also use the Planning Proposal Checklist to demonstrate consistency with the guidelines.
The guidelines also provide advice on best practice urban design within coastal areas. They can be used by designers, architects, landscapers and home builders to support the design of projects in the coastal zone, from the scale of a strategic plan to a development application.
14. Council Watch
Ku-ring-gai
Sleepy old Ku-ring-gai Council has been quiet for some time now. This is the Council that told former Planning Minister Rob Stokes “thanks, but no thanks” when they were presented with their housing targets under the last Sydney Region Plan.
Since then it has pretty much well been a downward trend in terms of housing supply in the Ku-ring-gai LGA.
The recent letter from the Minister Scully to all Councils asking them for a greater effort (including a moderate request to allow medium density housing in R2 zones) has poked the bear and elicited a response from the new Mayor – complaining about the undue haste of the NSW Government in addressing housing supply.
In the face of a supply crisis, the response from Ku-ring-gai demonstrates that NIMBY councils will oppose new housing where it can. If it can’t stop it, it will try to slow it down.
This is a council with a heavy rail line right down its spine with 8 heavy rail stations. And they talk about a lack of infrastructure!
The NSW Government must be prepared with a Plan B if councils like Ku-ring-gai don’t want to play ball when it comes to a fair solution to Sydney’s housing supply crisis.
To read the Daily Telegraph’s story on Ku-ring-gai’s concerns, click the link below:
*Please note, this article may be paywall protected.
Sydney Morning Herald | Ku-ring-gai mayor Sam Ngai pushes back over NSW Government plans for townhouses, flats in low rise suburbs
15. UTA in the News
2GB’s Chris O’Keefe spoke with CEO Tom Forrest on suggestions of a tax on short term rental accommodation properties. Tom suggested such ideas were a symptom of the housing supply crisis, rather than a cause:
16. Members in the News
*Please note, the links used below may be paywall protected.
“Goodman Group said construction pricing had risen significantly over the past 24 months on a national basis …" read more...
AFR, 13 November
“… Dexus said concrete was just one of many input costs and was not impacting overall development decisions…" read more...
AFR, 13 November
“… Billbergia will deliver apartments and retail as part of its six-building waterfront precinct in the Rhodes suburb…" read more…
The Urban Developer, 14 November
“… Aqualand says it plans to acknowledge and promote the design typology of North Sydney at its latest luxe development, AURA…" read more…
Architecture and Design, 14 November
“…The divestment provides opportunities for Leda to build on its pipeline of industrial and residential projects, while opening the door to new prospects in the market…" read more…
The Australian, 15 November
“… Billbergia Lifts Cover on $170m Chatswood Towers…” read more...
The Urban Developer, 16 November
“… Meriton Group is planning a $1.3bn twin tower project in the Brisbane CBD with over 1000 apartments…" read more…
The Australian, 16 November
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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.