Read Chris Minns’ plan to solve Sydney’s housing crisis

New planning and development reforms in NSW aim to create more affordable housing and boost supply in a bid to tackle the affordability and supply crisis.

Premier Chris Minns will on Thursday announce a range of initiatives to incentivise the construction of affordable housing, including setting more minimum affordable targets and fast-tracking planning processes.

Housing developments of more than $75 million, which include a minimum of 15 per cent affordable housing, will gain access to a new State Significant Development pathway, meaning planning decisions will be made faster.

These developments will also gain access to a 30 per cent floor space ratio boost and a height bonus of 30 per cent above local environment plans.

Incentivising a minimum affordable housing component in private developments on private land will build on the government’s pre-election commitment to ensure developments on surplus public land include a minimum of 30 per cent affordable, social and universal housing.

Under the new reforms, set to come into force later this year, the government will have the power to gazette more large-scale housing proposals as State Significant Developments, speeding up planning decisions.

Mr Minns called for the end of urban sprawl, saying people must get comfortable with the idea of going up in higher density housing, closer to infrastructure, to facilitate Sydney’s growth.

‘We can’t just keep adding a street to the fringes of Sydney every time we need more housing,’ he will say at a Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue event at Sydney Olympic Park on Thursday.

‘We need to look closer to the city, where so many people currently work, and where key workers need to travel to every single day.’

Opposition leader Mark Speakman says the government’s plan raises more questions than answers, saying ‘greenfield development’, meaning those in previously undeveloped areas, shouldn’t be sacrificed.

‘Is this a reconfiguration of supply, or is it an increase in supply? We don’t know,’ Mr Speakman said.

‘We call on the Labor government to provide detail to today’s announcement, how many properties will it deliver? Where will they be built? And will appropriate access to infrastructure including public transport be guaranteed?’

Chief executive of developer mouthpiece, Urban Taskforce, Tom Forrest welcomed the changes saying they will lead to a ‘flood of applications’.

He said greenfield developments were a necessary part of the solution and also called for more details.

‘Urban Taskforce sees today’s announcement as an important first step towards delivering on the targets contained within the Albanese government’s National Housing Accord.’

NSW needs to build 314,000 new dwellings to meet the state’s share of the Accord to build one million new homes over five years starting from 2024.

It is falling short by almost 30,000 homes a year.