Last week he unveiled a to increase and fast-track the construction of new housing across Sydney,including a quota for affordable accommodation.
The supply of housing in Sydney has not kept pace with demand.Brook Mitchell
Minns followed up on Monday with a who oppose desperately needed housing supply without good reason.
“A lot of these mayors … have two answers to any question in relation to development and that is ‘no’ or ‘hell no’,” he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
Minns said he is “not afraid” of a fight with councils to boost housing supply in the metropolitan area.
The shift to higher-density living in much of Sydney over the past few decades has transformed the city’s skyline. But we’re still playing catch-up on housing supply – especially in well-located suburbs where demand for accommodation is strongest.
Premier Chris Minns has criticised mayors for blocking housing developments in some parts of Sydney.Photo:Rhett Wyman
Sydney is already home to more than 5.3 million people and the housing mix must continue to change as the population climbs towards 6 million. It is unusual for cities of Sydney’s size to have such a high share of detached housing.
Unfortunately,some medium- and high-density housing developments undertaken during the past decade in Sydney have been ill-conceived and poorly designed. Developers have undermined the case for higher densities with unattractive and sometimes poorly constructed residential buildings. Too often new housing developments have not been accompanied by effective urban planning to ensure high public amenity.
But these are not reasons to curtail higher-density residential development. There will always be arguments against increased housing supply;it is up to authorities to strike a sensible balance and insist on good design. Saying “hell no” to every development is a betrayal of young people who are being denied access to well-located accommodation.
Earlier this month the NSW productivity commissioner Peter Achterstraat drew attention to a wasteful mismatch in recent patterns of Sydney’s housing supply.
His found fewer than 20 per cent of new dwellings between 2016 and 2021 were built within 10 kilometres of the central business district. New housing supply in some affluent council areas close to the CBD has been scandalously small compared with areas further west and south-west.
This is both unproductive and unfair. It also shows Minns’ criticisms of obstructionist mayors are justified.
The commissioner’s report calls for dwelling targets in inner-city areas to be lifted relative to middle- and outer-ring suburbs of Sydney which shoulder a disproportionate share of new housing development.
Minns is acutely aware of this problem. He told the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue last week,“Western Sydney is a great place to live,but it’s not the only place. We need to share density across this great city.”
Labor has not changed the net targets for new in NSW;Minns points out that if existing benchmarks were met,dwelling supply would be higher. However,given robust population forecasts for the state,it is likely future housing targets will need to be lifted.
Of course,there’s nothing new about a NSW premier talking tough on housing.
Minns’ two immediate predecessors vowed action on the crisis. When Gladys Berejiklian became premier in 2017 she dubbed housing affordability “the biggest issue” facing the state. The day Dominic Perrottet got the job in 2021 he claimed housing affordability would be a “real focus” for his government and lamented how “many young people today cannot get the keys to their very first home”.
Despite these pronouncements Sydney’s housing supply has failed to keep pace with demand,resulting in consistent upward pressure on property prices and rents.
The challenge for Minns is to move beyond tough political rhetoric and deliver a sustained increase in the supply of new homes,especially in well-located Sydney districts.
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