12 days of Christmas bring 12 priorities from NSW government

NSW Premier Mike Baird provided an update on his 12 priorities for NSW just in time for the 12 days of Christmas, but instead of gold rings and pipers piping, we received an update on jobs, infrastructure and housing approvals. 

The priorities outlined by Premier Baird encapsulate topics such as childhood obesity, education results, youth homelessness and public sector diversity.

Of particular interest to the property industry were priorities 1, 2 and 11. Priority one outlined the target of 1,000 new jobs by 2019 and that regional NSW is a focus of job creation with 30 per cent of the 1,000 job target pegged for regional areas. NSW has created more than 45 per cent of all jobs in Australia over the past year.

Priority two focused on infrastructure being delivered on time and budget. Sydney Metro alone will deliver 31 metro stations and more than 65 kilometres of new metro rail with stage one opening to customers in 2019

With the increased investment in rail, roads and precincts, it’s important for infrastructure to be delivered on time and synchronised with property development to ensure a development’s viability isn’t compromised.

Faster housing approvals was priority 11 and in addition to the increase in housing approvals over the past 12 months, 90 per cent of housing approvals were achieved within 44 days. Reforms such as the streamlining of the residential approvals process and enabling the online submission of applications have been implemented over the past 12 months.  To achieve true long term gains and meet the housing targets outlined in the District Plans, planning reform is required to make it easier and simpler for the industry to meet the housing targets outlined in the District Plans. The biggest constraints to housing supply is a broken planning system and the myriad of taxes and levies placed on the property industry.