The push for medium density
The question of medium density housing and how we can build more of it has been an issue of increasing prominence over past months.
Earlier this month the Minister released a design guide that will help make it easier to build well-designed low rise, medium density homes across NSW, following the release of a draft Medium Density Design Guide.
Minister Stokes said the draft policy is intended to encourage more and better designed terraces, townhouses and dual occupancies.
The new draft Medium Density Housing Code will be inserted into the Codes SEPP and contains building and design standards that promote a streamlined assessment of proposals and will apply across NSW.
The code aims to allow a range of homes – including townhouses, terraces, dual occupancies and manor homes – to be assessed as complying development if they meet specific design standards.
Complying development is faster than traditional development applications, taking about 22 days compared to 71 days as it meets already agreed stringent standards and local council zoning requirements.
The Government’s push for medium density housing was supported further with a report released by the Department of Planning and Environment that showed over half a million houses in Sydney have at least two empty bedrooms. Most of these houses were occupied by singles or empty nesters in their s.
The “missing middle” – the ring of suburbs from the northern beaches through Parramatta, and down to Botany Bay – is also where the cohort of older residents living in partially empty houses were concentrated, the study found.
The research highlights the potential benefit to the city’s housing supply if some homeowners chose to live in smaller dwellings, allowing young families to fill the larger houses.
A barrier to downsizing however is the cost. Stamp duty discourages single people or older Australians from downsizing due to the additional cost placed on moving to a new house. To encourage people to downsize and free up larger dwellings for families that need them, stamp duty must be scrapped to encourage mobility in the market.
Minister for Finance, Dominic Perrottet’s comments this week that the NSW government was considering abolishing stamp duty as a part of broader reforms to property tax is a sign of renewed interest in reform and forms part of the answer to tackling housing affordability and market mobility.
By scrapping stamp duty and increasing the supply of housing, we can start to chip away at the housing deficit and address the housing affordability crisis.