Sydney unaffordable despite home building boom
A record number of newly-built homes in Sydney have done little to alleviate housing affordability problems.
A record number of newly-built homes in Sydney have done little to alleviate housing affordability problems.A Sydney Morning Herald report has found more than 31,000 new homes were built in Sydney over the 12 months to October. The figure is the highest annual number of new homes in more than 40 years, the SMH reported.
NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes touted the figures as proof that the NSW government was “helping deliver a record number of new homes across Sydney”. He suggested that the state government’s policies were helping to address the 100,000 home undersupply faced by the city, the SMH said.
“By building a simpler, more efficient planning system, we’re working to improve housing supply and choice to help people get into the market,” Stokes said.
By City Futures Research Centre director Bill Randolph told the SMH the surge in home building was unlikely to serve as a panacea to rising house prices.
“Supply is just one part of it. It certainly isn’t going to relieve the affordability crisis we seem to be perpetually living with in Sydney,” he said.
University of Sydney head of urban and regional planning Peter Phibbs agreed, arguing that the federal government had “passed the buck to the states” in its refusal to consider changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
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