Plan affordable rental housing

The Greater Cities Commission has released a Discussion Paper on a Six Cities Region which is comprised of Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle City, Central Coast City, Illawarra Shoalhaven City, Western Parkland City, Central River City, and Eastern Harbour City.

This follows the Greater Sydney Region Plan, A Metropolis of Three Cities which included the Western Parkland City, Central River City and Eastern Harbour City.  The Three Cities were comprised of six districts – Central City, Eastern City, North District, South District, Western City and Eastern City.

The rest of NSW was divided into nine planning regions – Central Coast, Central West and Orana, Hunter, Illawarra Shoalhaven, New England North West, North Coast, Riverina Murray, South and East Tablelands and Far West NSW.

The Six Cities Region Discussion Paper states that “Housing is repeatedly identified by the community as one of the most significant issues facing Greater Sydney.  It is also a priority across regional NSW, with Infrastructure Australia recently identifying the ‘availability, diversity and affordability of housing’ as the primary infrastructure gap in regional areas.”

In addition, the Discussion Paper states that “The Commission will work with local councils, state and federal agencies and industry to improve delivery of affordable housing, including new financing mechanisms, with a 10 per cent affordable housing target for new rezonings where there will be a housing uplift.” Further, that “The City Plans will set a target of up to 30 per cent for the proportion of social and affordable housing in residential developments on government land.”

As local government prepare or update local housing strategies to consider and respond to the needs of their communities, including for affordable housing, DCJ has prepared District and Regional Housing Snapshots, designed to assist.  DCJ has developed an Overview, as well as a more detailed examination of Housing Demand, the Housing Market, Housing Supply and the Gap for each District or Region with a particular emphasis on affordable housing and the needs of lower and moderate income households.

These Housing Snapshots will also be useful for community housing providers, other non-government organisations, planners and others, to help understand local housing need.

The Housing Snapshots provide information on housing need by District and Region as well as by local government area.

Districts

The graph below demonstrates that Greater Sydney is losing low and moderate income households, despite an overall increase in the total number of households between 2016 and 2021. There has been a significant increase in high income households in Greater Sydney over this time frame.  The Rest of NSW has seen a significant increase in low income households between 2016 and 2021 – suggesting that lower income households are leaving Sydney for more affordable regional areas.

The next graph indicates that it is not low income rental household which are leaving Greater Sydney – as they have increased faster than the population and in spite of a loss of low income households between 2016 and 2021. This implies the need for an increased supply of affordable rental housing. The Housing Snapshots give insights into these changes in the Districts within Greater Sydney and in the Regions in the Rest of NSW.

• Central City (update with 2021 census data)
• Eastern City (update with 2021 census data)
• North District (update with 2021 census data)
• South District (update with 2021 census data)
• Western City (update with 2021 census data)

Regions

• Central Coast (update with 2021 census data) 
• Central West and Orana (update with 2021 census data)
• Hunter (update with 2021 census data)
• Illawarra Shoalhaven (update with 2021 census data)
• New England North West (update with 2021 census data)
• North Coast (update with 2021 census data)
• Riverina Murray (update with 2021 census data)
• South and East Tablelands (update with 2021 census data)
• Far West (with 2021 census data)

Note that the landing page for each Housing Snapshot provides an Overview of the District or Region. Scroll down to the links to additional information on What’s happening with demand; What’s happening in the housing market; and What’s happening with supply and is it a good match.

Most of the data in these snapshots is available from the Local Government Housing Kit database. Assistance in preparing a housing strategy is available in the Local Government Housing Kit.

• Link to Local Government Housing Kit
• Link to Local Government Housing Kit database