Following on from this morning’s post on recent reforms by the NSW Government to boost housing supply, the Government today released its Planning White Paper, which attempts to “make NSW more competitive by improving decision making, providing more certainty and making it more cost effective to do business in the state”, by streamlining decision-making processes amongst NSW’s 152 local councils.
In the above video, NSW Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, provides an overview of the new system, whereas the Executive Summary is provided below.
A key aspect of the White Paper are expedited development approval processes. According to the Government, Development Applications currently take 71 days on average to process, whereas under the new system, councils will be required to give approval to 80% of all complying buildings within 25 days, with approvals on straight forward applications (i.e. where new homes and renovations are under two storeys and do not affect neighbours with overshadowing or privacy issues) required in under 10 days.
According to The Australian:
Councils will also be forced to spend millions of dollars of infrastructure levies they have been hoarding – with the 43 Sydney councils accumulating $760 million paid by developers, earning $40 million in interest last year. Under the changes, authorities will only be able to charge infrastructure fees for essential roads, drainage and parks, instead of saving for decades for pet projects.
The state government has rejected calls to bring in a flat tax of $160 on every ratepayer in the state to fund $1.2 billion of infrastructure a year for new urban growth.
Instead, it will make dramatic changes to council taxes on new properties, forcing new apartments in the affluent east to pay infrastructure levies to stop western homebuyers copping up to $40,000 on the cost of their houses, while $2 million properties in the east pay just $5000.
At the moment, a $450,000 new house in Camden will cost homebuyers more than $40,000 in combined local and state infrastructure contributions, while the owners of a new three-bedroom, $2 million apartment in Double Bay would pay just over $5000 in local contributions.
“Whether you are in Camden or Collaroy, if your new development creates demand for infrastructure, you should make a modest contribution to the cost of new or upgraded infrastructure to support growth,” Mr Hazzard said.
Executive Summary below.
NSW Planning White Paper (Exec Summary)
