NSW to Publish Housing Approval Figures by Each Council to Speed Up Building

A labourer works on an under construction house in the western Sydney, Australia, on May 4, 2022. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)

In a move to spur competition between councils, the New South Wales (NSW) state government will publish data on the number of housing approvals processed in each area, and rank them in a league table.

A consistently underperforming council will be subject to a Performance Improvement Order to speed up approvals.

The measure is part of the NSW government’s efforts to address the housing crisis by increasing supply by allowing developers to build faster.

Minister for Planning Paul Scully said it was critical to track these figures as councils approve 85 percent of residential housing proposals in the state.

“We are committed to building a better NSW with more homes so young people, families and workers have somewhere to live. The government has announced a suite of housing reforms over the past 12 months aimed at delivering more homes faster,” he said.

“We are now introducing new performance standards and monitoring because if we don’t measure performance then we can’t monitor it properly.

Mr. Scully released a new Statement of Expectations outlining the desired timeframes that councils need to meet when assessing various proposals.

This includes $200 million for councils that do manage to achieve this.

“There is $200 million in financial incentives available to councils to help achieve housing targets and improve planning performance including development application timeframes,” he said.

“The funding will help deliver local infrastructure including roads, open spaces, and community facilities for growing communities.”

Meanwhile, time frame expectations for significant development projects will be published from August.

The new ranking will also allow the state government to track its own performance.

However, NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman criticised the use of funds for the new league table, saying it siphoned investment away from needed infrastructure.

He said the state needed to increase density to address the housing crisis.

“We support more density done right, in consultation with the local community, but the Minns government is just going to try and cram tens of thousands of additional families into existing schools, hospitals and roads,” he said in response to the announcement.

Mr. Speakman also noted that the high levels of immigration that has been fueling demand needed to be addressed.

Approval Numbers in a Trough

Under the National Housing Accord, the NSW government is pledging to build 377,000 new homes by 2029.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, NSW approved a total of 3,696 new dwellings in May, of which over half (1,978) were from the private sector.

That was a monthly increase of 5.9 percent for private sector approvals, and a 2.9 percent increase overall.

While NSW had the second highest increase in private sector approvals, it came in last across every jurisdiction when comparing overall numbers.

NSW was also far behind the top ranked state, Western Australia, where approvals increased nearly 20 percent.

The 5.5 percent uptick in approvals across the nation in May comes after they dipped to an 11-year low in April.