Shelter NSW supports the urban renewal of transit centres in ways that make them more inclusive. In early December 2023, the NSW Government announced the long-anticipated Transport Oriented Development (TOD) program, intended to drive significant increases in housing supply around transport hubs in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Illawarra and the Hunter.

Prior to this, Shelter NSW had partnered with the Planning Institute of Australia (NSW) and within the Sydney Alliance calling for substantial proportions of affordable rental housing to be required within any future upzoned transport precincts (under a Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning MIZ framework); and for that affordable housing to be required to be in perpetuity, managed by not-for-profit community housing providers. To ensure an effective response to local communities we called for master planning and co-operation between levels of government.

In many respects, elements of our advocacy were successful. We commended the NSW Government for ensuring that regulated and genuinely affordable rental housing would be a part of any new, well located housing supply. We noted that done well, and at scale, this could be a game changer for NSW communities and especially low-medium income renters.

Since then, we have learned more about the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI)’s overall approach and more detail about individual precinct proposals.

Source: DPHI Website

Please follow the individual precinct location links for each precinct via the Transport Oriented Development Program – Accelerated Precincts | Planning (nsw.gov.au) to find the ‘Make a Submission’ page. 
Your submission could be as simple as making comment or noting your objection with just a few words of explanation as to why you are concerned. In all cases, Shelter NSW will be lodging a formal objection to each of the exhibited proposal. More information about the 8 x Accelerated Precincts.

As a reminder, the Tier 1 Accelerated precincts are Government-led rezonings within an area up 1,200 metres around identified high growth ‘priority transport’ hubs.

Key housing requirements originally announced were for up to 15% ‘affordable housing’, managed by registered community housing organisations, to be held ‘in perpetuity’. While Shelter NSW understood that the exact details of the affordable housing requirements might vary from the precinct to precinct we have been very concerned to see potential rates as low as 3% being formally considered.

In an overall sense, we are concerned that apparent disparities and inconsistencies potentially reflect a lack of common principles and coherent approach. With the absence of anything from DPHI to explain its approach, the level of required contributions often appears to be arbitrary, not linked to the specific locational value uplift and changes to the planning controls.

See the below table, assembled from DPHI data indicating the various affordable housing rates being considered for each precinct. Note especially the range of rates.

At its least ambitious just 2,835 affordable rental dwellings might be delivered across the precincts versus 6,190 at the Department’s high-end but versus the 9,323 we and the broader community might have expected to secure (if a 15% or higher rate was to be applied)

Prepared by Shelter NSW from DPHI data August 2024

Our key concerns with these proposals:

• A public and high-profile announcement of up to 15% affordable housing rates was part of the ‘density deal’ sold to the broader community – the low rates being considered undermine the general promise and delivery of the TOD program
• Proposing a range of affordable housing contributions for an individual precinct is poor practice and already sending confused signals to the market.
• The lowest common denominator should be avoided – if the higher rate is deemed ‘feasible’ it should be adopted.
• In the case of 15% rate not being committed to there needs to be a clear a provision for the ramping up of these contribution rates over say a three-year period and according to a published schedule (consistent with the proposal to do this with the lower density TOD program)There needs to be explicit consideration of the existing low-cost housing (and households) that will displaced by development in some of these precincts. For example in Homebush and Bankstown. The latter has been a long-held concern for Shelter NSW as the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA has been targeted for housing growth.

For any questions or comments please contact Cathy Callaghan, Principal Policy Officer at cathy@shelternsw.org.au.