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Adina Cirson, the Property Council’s acting NSW executive director, has applauded the announcement of the NSW Labor Party’s build-to-rent (BTR) election promise.
As previously reported on REB, NSW opposition leader Chris Minns and state shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey pledged to embark on a $30 million build-to-rent project on the state’s south coast.
Promised as part of the party’s wider plan to build more houses within Australia’s most populous state in a bid to stifle NSW’s ongoing housing crisis, the pilot project would see “government developer Landcom identify public land for development in areas where supply shortages are prevalent”.
“The project would be produced by either the Homes NSW agency announced by the Labor Party, or a community housing provider, and would see 30 per cent of stock made available for social and affordable housing,” REB’s previous reporting stated.
Ms Cirson commended Labor’s plan as “exactly the sort of government intervention we need to tackle the crisis head-on”, adding that “delivering more housing supply is the best chance we have of easing the regional rental squeeze across New South Wales”.
She outlined that the plan “mirrors our [the PCA] recommendation in our election platform”, offering the opposition to “expand the pilot to provide subsidies to the private sector to also deliver all BTR projects, improve tax concessions, and develop a BTR design guide”.
“The federal government’s Housing Accord [announced in last year’s mini-budget] showed big capital is lining up to invest in the housing market, and we shouldn’t stand in their way, which is why we also encourage the next NSW government to lobby the federal government should reduce the 30 per cent withholding tax on foreign investment in BTR developments,” she said.
Ms Cirson added that offering long-term rental subsidies to BTR providers to deliver affordable housing within BTR developments would ultimately deliver more housing supply to the regions.
“Under the program, a set percentage of dwellings could be provided at discounted rent via a 10-to-15-year subsidy to providers to meet the growing demand for secure long-term rental properties,” she concluded.
Ahead of the first NSW state election in four years on 25 March, housing promises to play a prominent role following the state’s Labor Party’s sector-centric promises, which also included an overhaul of stamp duty within Australia’s most populous state — including raising the stamp duty-free threshold — as well as alterations to legislation surrounding housing pets within rentals.
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