NSW Budget Response

The 2024-25 NSW Budget was handed down on Tuesday afternoon, and there was a lot to like. Most exciting to us was that the government’s land audit has identified 44 sites with capacity for 30,000 new homes.

The announcement was light on details, but this is a really meaningful amount of new homes - representing almost half a year’s housing target by itself. We’re looking forward to learning more and will push the government to make the most of this opportunity.

Another major initiative that we welcome is the investment of more than $6 billion to build 6,200 new social homes, replace a further 2,200 and upgrade another 33,500. This is a significant investment in social housing that will make a real dent in the rapidly increasing waitlist, helping vulnerable people get a secure roof over their heads.

There were plenty of other announcements to like as well. Landcom has been given $450 million to develop build-to-rent housing for essential workers, more than $500 million will be invested in homelessness services, and more than $250 million has been dedicated to speed up planning decisions that are delaying much-needed housing. 

None of these announcements alone will fix the housing crisis, but they’re all positive steps that complement ongoing planning reforms and will contribute to lower rents.

We also welcome the freezing of land tax thresholds. This will encourage owners to make better use of scarce land, and the previous approach of pegging the threshold to property prices meant that many investors avoided paying it at all. This will raise revenue that should be invested in the homes and infrastructure that Sydney needs. In the future, we’d like to see a single rate of land tax applied more broadly, as the current two-tier system privileges small-time investors and can discourage build-to-rent developments. 

While the budget is overall positive for housing, there were some missed opportunities. Investments in enabling infrastructure didn’t go far enough. Many small projects, like sewage treatment plants and water supply upgrades, can unlock large amounts of new housing.

We’d like to see the government set up a taskforce to identify the upgrades that will deliver the most homes and coordinate with local councils, Transport for NSW, Sydney Water and other utility companies to get them built. 

All in all, we’re happy with this budget, and look forward to seeing some more details in the coming months. One thing we are sure of is that when these announcements turn into actual housing proposals, the usual crowd will be out protesting against them- and we’ll need your help to take the fight to these NIMBYs and win. 

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