A new report from the NSW Productivity & Equality Commission claims we can help solve the housing crisis if we stop requiring apartments to have access to sunlight is a missed opportunity.
“A productive city needs long term planning for jobs, housing, infrastructure and places – not building poor quality units” noted Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) NSW President Sue Weatherley RPIA (Fellow).
“The spins a very narrow vision for our cities shaped only by development feasibility for housing” she said.
The Commission’s Review of housing supply challenges and policy options for NSW Report, brushes over the biggest issues facing housing supply today, including construction costs, finance costs and labour availability [i].
“The report highlights the impacts on feasibility of escalating construction costs – which is the largest cost of development, and which has increased by 29 per cent since 2018 – and finance costs, which have more than doubled and now add around $83,000 to the cost of an apartment,” noted Sue Weatherley.
“But instead of identifying meaningful solutions to these critical issues, the report is obsessed with planning even though land use and zoning decisions have no effect on these factors,” Ms Weatherley said.
“At least half of the report’s 32 recommendations relate to planning matters, despite the evidence saying we need to solve the serious issues of construction and finance costs, as well as the delivery of the infrastructure we need to support density – especially social housing.
“We are disappointed at this missed opportunity to identify new solutions for housing, with the Commission instead raising fringe ideas like scrapping requirements for apartments to have access to sunlight [ii],” she said.
“We need high-performing planning systems and there are opportunities for positive reform in NSW, but reducing the quality of development is not what the community wants to see,” she said.
“Good planning and infrastructure investments are critical ingredients in achieving the kind of communities people want to live in, and it’s how we ensure public support for the well-located density and housing diversity we need” noted Ms Weatherley.
Ms Weatherley said PIA supported some of the report’s recommendations, including that infrastructure contributions should be ‘simple, certain, and cost-reflective’. PIA also recognises that planning can reduce unnecessary delays by encouraging referral agency collaboration and by ensuring a streamlined development pathway for simple developments.
PIA has also supported the reduction of parking in well located apartment developments - not just to reduce construction costs but to get more from our investment in public transport and walking.
“It is much easier to accelerate approval timeframes when there is up-to-date and integrated strategic plans, setting out how and where we will grow, backed by the infrastructure we need to ensure socially, economically and environmentally sustainable communities,” she said.
[i] As identified on page 22 of the report.
[ii] Page 60 of the report.
Media Contact: Tessa Faucheur PIA NSW / ACT State Manager – tessa.faucheur@planning.org.au - 0432 392 351