Quarterly progress

As of July 2022, all 33 Greater Sydney councils had local housing strategies in place that identify strategic works to deliver housing in line with need for diversity and access to infrastructure, services and open space.

Following recommendations from the Regional Housing Taskforce, a new Regional Housing Development program has been announced. The program will improve housing data and delivery support for high-growth regional areas over the next 2 years. In addition, round 1 of the Regional Housing Strategic Planning Fund will help councils undertake strategic planning activities such as technical studies and LEP amendments to support longer term housing delivery. Successful applications will be announced in December 2022.

The NSW Government has a target to unlock 100,000 dwellings through rezoning by 2023–24

The Rezone and Build program prioritises state-led rezoning for 70,000 dwellings in key precincts over 2 years.

The Planning for Growth program will support an additional 30,000 new dwellings over 2 years through faster assessments, case management services and the planning concierge.

In Q1 2022–23, rezoning unlocked 2,560 potential dwellings, including 1,765 in metropolitan NSW and 795 in regional NSW. This quarter builds on the strong delivery since January 1 2022 that has seen a combined 28,696 potential dwellings unlocked by rezoning.

Most rezoning for 2022–23 is scheduled for Q2. Over 30,000 lots are scheduled to be finalised, putting NSW well on-track to meet an interim target of 50,000 by June 2023.

The State Infrastructure Strategy 2022–2042 identified that new housing supply can only be delivered where infrastructure keeps pace. It recommended that government agencies work together to fund and deliver enabling infrastructure.

In Q1 2022–23:

• 25 infrastructure projects were allocated grant funding through the Regional Housing Fund, with the potential to support an estimated 23,704 new dwellings across regional NSW
• project nominations were received for round 3 of the Accelerated Infrastructure Fund, which will help high growth councils deliver new infrastructure to support housing. Projects will be announced in December.

The Planning for Growth program aims to release 32,500 dwellings over 2 years through state and regionally significant development applications.

In Q1 2022–23, 9,558 potential dwellings have been unlocked via state and regionally significant development projects, including 6,799 in metropolitan NSW and 2,759 in regional NSW. This is more than half the interim target of 16,250 dwellings by June 2023.

In addition, 23,771 potential dwellings have been unlocked through more than 6,000 approved local development applications. More than two-thirds of these are multi-unit dwellings.

As of June 2022, the ABS recorded 77,571 dwellings under construction in NSW—higher than any other state.

However, all states were affected by a national decline in construction in 2022. The Australian Performance of Construction Index shows activity across the construction sector has fallen for 4 consecutive months, with the biggest declines in the housing and apartment sectors. Contributing factors include materials shortages, rising interest rates and global economic uncertainty.

In Q1 2022-23, 1,999 dwellings in NSW were approved for construction in regional NSW. This is below historical averages (around 4,500 per quarter) and likely reflective of the broader downturn.

The Regional Housing Development program is taking a long-term view of regional housing supply, including supporting upfront strategic planning, to unlock a targeted 127,000 new dwellings over 10-years.

The department is preparing new measures to unpack construction and completion activity in NSW using data from the NSW Planning Portal. These estimates will be included in the next Insights Monitor.