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Steven Cross
Upwards of 90,000 houses need to be built in Sydney, and quickly, to help address housing costs that are now higher than London and New York, a report by the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) has claimed.
“Recent studies have indicated that Australia - and Sydney in particular – has one of the least affordable housing markets in the world,” the report said.
“It is estimated that by 2020 New South Wales will have a housing shortage of almost 190,000 homes and Sydney’s housing costs are now higher than London and New York.”
Much of the land identified for development of the 90,000 homes lies entirely to the west of Campbelltown, in outer south western Sydney.
But Tim McKibbin, CEO at the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW), said the developments are located in the wrong place.
“I think [the idea] is to be welcomed; however, I think also that, as part of the planning process, we need to look at the impediments toward in-field developments,” he told Real Estate Business. “That’s one of the big issues we’ve got.”
“A lot of people are looking to a different style of property. If we go back 25 years everyone was looking for that quarter acre block in the suburbs, but I think society has moved on from that somewhat.
“We are looking for properties within a five to ten kilometre radius of Sydney, and higher quality, higher density properties.”
“We need to be opening up these sort of developments and encouraging them close to rail and bus transport routes. We have something like 82,000 people coming into NSW in the next year. And every one of those people is expecting to have a roof over their head.”
According to the latest ANGLICARE survey, the amount of affordable rental properties in Greater Sydney and the Illawarra remains at 0.6 per cent.
This figure is more than half the 2011 figure of 1.3 per cent.
CEO of ANGLICARE Sydney, Grant Millard, said his organisation surveyed 11,448 private rental properties in Sydney and the Illawarra to assess their affordability for households relying on government payments and households receiving the minimum wage.
“Our Rental Affordability Snapshot found just 25 affordable private rental properties in Sydney and only one within 20 kilometres of the Sydney CBD,” Mr Millard said.
“Single person households and single parents have the least options for affordable rentals costing less than 30 per cent of gross income. There were only three affordable properties for a single parent with two children who receives the parenting payment,” said Mr Millard.
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