‘Confusing’ NSW housing system given ‘fail mark’, ranked worst in country

The NSW housing planning system has been handed a failing grade, ranked as equal worst in the country according to a new building industry report.

In its inaugural Planning Blueprint Scorecard, the Housing Industry Association has monitored the progress of key planning reform measures and scored NSW an unsatisfactory 1.5 out of five, blaming the poor score on inefficiencies leading to major delays.

The mediocre mark, which is on par with both Queensland and the Northern Territory, comes just one year after national cabinet endorsed a National Housing Accord (The Accord) that included an aspirational target to build 1.2 million new, well-located homes over five years from mid-2024.

At the time, Cabinet also agreed to a National Planning Reform Blueprint to outline planning, zoning, land release and other measures to improve housing supply and affordability.

While HIA’s report card claims the industry body broadly supports the federal Blueprint, the report’s author Mike Hermon said planning approvals for stand-alone house or apartments continue to be too slow.

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“The biggest thing highlighted for NSW is that the system is unnecessarily complex. NSW needs to build roughly 40 per cent more residential buildings than they’re building at the moment. So in the context of that complexity, NSW is in a real conundrum,” he explained.

“And the concerning thing is, if you implemented and fixed the NSW planning system tomorrow, those fixes wouldn’t actually bring on a real effect for probably a good two or three years. That’s what we’re trying to highlight here.”

In the context of a worsening housing crisis, the report spelled out that it is crunch time for the Premier State.

“That’s why we need an immediate solution. We need to remove those barriers and constraints, because if we don’t, where we’re going to be business as usual for the next X amount of years. NSW has to work really hard at getting a streamlined planning system,” Mr Herman said.

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He added that in many instances the private sector was looking for “shovel ready” land, but government data was including tracts where key infrastructure would take another decade to catch up.

Additionally, Mr Hermon claimed poor communication between different government departments led to delays for land or apartments being released for sale, resulting in higher holding costs for developers, which were being passed on to the families buying properties.

In response to the damning scorecard, a NSW Government Spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph that it was working to streamline the inefficient system it adopted last year.

“After 12 years of Liberal Governments in NSW, we inherited a planning system that was as confused as it was confusing and an infrastructure deficit,” they said.

“We understand that housing is the largest cost of living issue people are facing and they are doing it tough and we have done everything but throw the kitchen sink at addressing this housing crisis.”

The spokesman also highlighted that the Minns Government had introduced “one of the biggest programs of rezoning reform the State has seen” as well as a suite of measures to see more homes delivered faster.

These measures included a NSW Pattern Book, council league tables to monitor council performance, new housing targets and a new Ministerial Statement of Expectations.

“In the recent budget, the NSW Government announced the largest ever investment in the state’s history with $5.1 billion dedicated to delivering social and affordable housing and a land audit that will unlock 30,000 homes including 8400 public homes built by the Government,” they said, adding that $16.3 million had been dedicated to fee-free training for apprentices and trainees to ensure NSW had a skilled construction workforce.

“We are doing everything within our controls to address this housing crisis but we need industry to start the work of building homes.”

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