Haberfield Defence Land

You may have seen us in the news this week talking about how Sydney’s heritage protections are a major constraint on building the homes we need. 

Some of the defenders of the status quo have said that heritage doesn’t have an effect on housing affordability. We know that’s not true: by significantly restricting what you can build, you increase prices and limit supply. 

This is a live issue. The Australian Department of Defence has a 2 hectare site on Hawthorne Parade, Haberfield that it is looking to sell. The current plan is for the site to be subdivided into 900sqm lots for the construction of single family homes. 

In the current market, they would be expected to sell for around $3 million each. You would need a household income of around $500,000 a year to be able to buy such a property with a mortgage. Fewer than 1% of Australian households have that kind of income.

Under federal Finance Department policy, the sale of land suitable for housing should include affordable housing initiatives. 

This is clearly a case where heritage protections, which prevent medium density uses, are leading to worse housing outcomes.

We have written a letter to Australia’s Defence Minister, Richard Marles, to offer the land to either the state government or to Inner West Council, to develop as social housing, on the condition that the medium density development is allowed.

You can help by writing to Inner West Council below, asking them to change the controls on the site to permit apartments. This will help with affordability in the area and will increase housing diversity. This is especially important when the whole suburb is huge houses on 800sqm blocks, and the population is ageing rapidly— many are going to need to downsize in the coming years and it’s important they be able to do so locally.