Property Council NSW Executive Director Katie Stevenson said the scale of the challenge was increasing despite the latest ABS Building Approvals for May showing a welcome 2.2% uplift from 4,368 in April to 4,465 in May.
“Today marks the start of year three of the National Housing Accord, but NSW is already significantly behind where we need to be,” Ms Stevenson said.
“With the ABS data showing just 97,198 homes approved since the Accord began two years ago, NSW is tracking well below what’s needed to meet its 377,000 new homes target by July 2029, and the gap is widening.
“When the Accord began in July 2024 the challenge was to approve 6,283 new homes every month – today we’re faced with needing monthly approvals of 7,562 to have any chance of creating the pipeline required to meet the target.
“What’s also concerning from today’s data is that the number of apartments approved over the last 12 months is down from 17,433 to 16,137 – with the policy focus on well-located infill housing, it’s clear more needs to be done to enable feasibility for these kinds of developments,” she said.
Ms Stevenson said the commencement of the NSW Government’s new Development Coordination Authority (DCA) today was a welcome and important reform, particularly in addressing delays between approval and construction.
“This is a critical reform that recognises where the real bottlenecks now sit – getting approved projects into construction,” she said.
“The DCA reflects what the Property Council has consistently called for – a stronger focus on what happens after approval, and a coordinated approach to getting projects out of the ground.
Ms Stevenson said last week’s NSW Budget included important measures to support housing delivery, but more will be needed to lift supply at the scale required.
“The expansion of the Pre-Sale Finance Guarantee and support for modern construction methods will help, but they don’t yet deliver the step-change needed to accelerate delivery,” she said.
“Approvals are just the first step – if projects don’t stack up, they won’t get built. Feasibility remains under pressure from construction costs, taxes, charges and market conditions, and that’s what’s holding back both approvals and delivery.
“We need to be doing everything we can to lift approvals, improve feasibility, and convert more of those approvals into homes,” she said.
