Faster medium density housing approvals

With Sydney in need of more than 600,000 new dwellings in the next 15 years, Planning Minister Rob Stokes has released a discussion paper on fast-tracking delivery of medium density housing under the state’s complying development assessment process.

The government believes meeting that target of 600,000 new dwellings will require giving more attention to the middle ground between the high-density apartment block and the stand-alone, detached home.

And, according to a third of homeowners surveyed by the Department of Planning & Environment last year, terraces present a viable “downsizing” option – preferences which are being driven by changing lifestyles and demographics.

Under the changes proposed with the Discussion paper, development proposals for a range of medium density housing options such as terraces, would still be required to comply with existing local council zonings, meeting strict development standards, design requirements and amenity guidelines, but would be filtered through a faster approval process.

Fast tracking the supply of medium density housing is one of 12 recommendations the Property Council provided to the Government as part of its report “Supercharging the Complying Development System in NSW”.

Currently, approval for complying development applications takes on average 18 days, compared with 70 for a full DA. In 2013-14 complying development allowed 29 per cent of all development approvals to be fast-tracked and a total of $4.4 billion worth of development to be delivered.

The Property Council will make making a submission on the Discussion Paper.