May 2022 - UDIA NSW

UDIA NSW calls for right place, right time infrastructure to address housing affordability

Posted on 2022-05-31 by udia@admin

Tuesday 31 May 2022 (Sydney, Australia)
UDIA NSW calls for right place, right time infrastructure to address housing affordability
UDIA welcomes the Infrastructure NSW State Infrastructure Strategy 2022-2044: Staying Ahead and applauds the report’s recommendations for the NSW Government to continue investment in infrastructure and suggests a more diversified infrastructure investment pipeline that balances megaprojects, with small and medium sized city shaping infrastructure and critical enabling infrastructure projects.

The desire of the NSW Government to improve the supply of new homes to tackle the housing and affordability crisis in NSW, combined with the review of Infrastructure Contributions, creates a window of opportunity to improve the alignment of enabling infrastructure delivery with planning, to improve the supply and affordability of new homes.

UDIA supports the strategic directions contained in the State Infrastructure Strategy including

Better coordination of infrastructure, land use and service planning to meet housing, employment, industry and community needs.
Increase private sector participation in the delivery of government-led precincts.
Regularly update planning regulation and land use controls to reflect current circumstances.

By achieving these outcomes, UDIA believes that the right place, right time infrastructure will be delivered more efficiently, to address the NSW housing crisis and provide housing and jobs where they are needed most.

“Investing in the right infrastructure is critical for addressing housing affordability and providing people with the new homes we need,” said Steve Mann, CEO UDIA NSW.

The importance of enabling infrastructure is highlighted in UDIA NSW Building Blocks for Greater Western Sydney 2021 report, which identified the nine catalytic infrastructure projects with an average cost of under $100 million (some as low as $30 million) to support over 60,000 dwellings in Greater Western Sydney, which will create 40,000 construction jobs and deliver $17 billion in economic activity in NSW over the next 3 to 5 years.

UDIA recommends implementing an Urban Development Program with Empowered UDP Committees for each region by bringing together key delivery agencies and the industry to prioritise and better coordinate infrastructure. The use of data and digital tools, can also lead to better coordination and the right infrastructure at the right time and in the right place.

“We need to ensure every infrastructure dollar gets to the right project as soon as possible and with integrated local and State works, to ensure there is no missing piece to inhibit growth and the creation of great places,” said Mr Mann.

The NSW Government should accept all the recommendations in the State Infrastructure Strategy that will support housing supply. As well as delivering new homes, this approach will also improve productivity and deliver economic growth and jobs. We look forward to working with government to deliver the right infrastructure projects at the right time,” added Mr. Mann.

Media Enquiries:
Deanna Lane 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au.

UDIA welcomes planning for growth and investment commitment for Western Sydney

Posted on 2022-05-12 by udia@admin

UDIA applauds the recent change to the planning provisions within the Parramatta CBD which will see more jobs and housing in Greater Parramatta. This includes 12,000 new apartments being created in Sydney’s second CBD and a further 38,000 dwellings along Parramatta Road Growth Corridor.

With the renewed focus of Government on the six cities across the Sydney Megaregion, our two premier CBDs, Sydney and Parramatta, must remain as the hotspots of housing and jobs and focal points for infrastructure investment. The recent announcement together with yesterday’s statement by Minister Roberts of the investment of $49 million towards significant infrastructure projects in the area, will go a long way to support this outcome.

The success of Parramatta CBD and Central River City are closely tied and will provide up to 84,000 new homes at the Camellia Rosehill and Sydney Olympic Park growth precincts, as well as the Parramatta CBD and Parramatta Road Growth Corridor. Based on Cordell Connect and UDIA supplemented research, the Central River City could provide up to 30,000 apartments in the next 5-10 years, which is the largest contributor tof Greater Sydney’s apartment supply.

Apartments are critical to cater for the international students as they return and home buyers who continue to embrace high density living due to its good access to jobs, and infrastructure and services, supported by lifestyle benefits.

We should now see the combined infrastructure investment to match the future residential investment in the Central River City. This could include an earlier completion of the West Sydney Metro, expected by 2030, the full delivery of Stage 2 of the Parramatta Light Rail and other recently identified Parramatta Road infrastructure needed to drive growth.

We support an integrated delivery program of all infrastructure to better link our premier CBDs, improve access in the Central River City and strengthen the Parramatta Road Growth Corridor.

Steve Mann, CEO, UDIA NSW said “Both announcements from the NSW Government are extremely encouraging, particularly as they align with our strong commitment to Greater Western Sydney through our NextGen West Advocacy Strategy in partnership with Business Western Sydney. These changes will further enhance Parramatta as CBD No.2 in the Greater Sydney Mega Region.”

“Based on the BWS Closer to Talent report, local jobs in the Parramatta City LGA have grown from 157,000 in 2014 to 192,000 in 2020. This is a big step forward for the 30-minute city aspiration in Western Sydney and new homes well located to transport connecting to high paid jobs is what we need to see more of in Western Sydney,” said Mr. Mann.

We also look forward to the delivery of a future rail link from Parramatta CBD to Aerotropolis (Bradfield) Link to ensure our second CBD better connects the west with the west.

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Media Enquiries:
Deanna Lane 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au.

A better, faster and cheaper planning process is possible in NSW says UDIA

Posted on 2022-05-092022-05-09 by udia@admin

Today at its Annual Western Sydney Lunch, UDIA NSW launched a Paper on the Urban Development Program which calls on the NSW Government and the Opposition to complete the Infrastructure Contributions Reform package developed from the Productivity Commission’s 2021 White Paper. The desire of the NSW Government to improve the supply of new homes to tackle the housing supply and affordability crisis in NSW, combined with the draft Infrastructure Contributions Reform package, creates a window of opportunity to greatly improve the alignment of state and local infrastructure delivery with planning. UDIA has spent two years working with the NSW Productivity Commission identifying that development planning and regional enabling infrastructure delivery was one of the most important areas to improve productivity in NSW, culminating in the 2021 White Paper. The UDIA Paper released today which can be found here, shows that empowered Urban Development Program Committees for each region will be a game changer in the way that NSW plans and delivers its growth. “The success of the committees will be in having the right membership of government, infrastructure providers and industry working together in each region to prioritise projects, with a governance model as part of the Infrastructure Contributions reform package which would recommend spending of Regional Infrastructure Contributions reporting to a Cabinet Infrastructure Committee and co-ordinate agency and consolidated revenue allocations,” said Steve Mann, CEO, UDIA NSW. “In addition, the use of the right data and proven digital tools for rapid business cases assessment, will result in significantly reducing the housing supply and employment lands bottlenecks caused by a lack of enabling infrastructure,” he added.UDIA has been working on these issues for the past four years and has invested in two pilot studies to test a UDP Committee concept for collaboration across stakeholders to prioritise infrastructure and land use.The Pilots provided the foundations for a model to successfully align infrastructure delivery and land use in NSW cities. We proved how 3D city planning tools could make the planning process better, faster and cheaper through the use of a UDP. This led to the Department of Planning & Environment using our data and learnings in the creation of the Greater Sydney UDP and online dashboard.NSW is in desperate need to create more development ready land so that houses can be built, with major regional infrastructure needing to be completed for water, sewer, power and roads.“We must get every available infrastructure dollar invested into the best projects as quickly as we can, so that local communities get the infrastructure they have been promised with growth. UDIA has shown that there is over $3Bn of developer contributions held by Councils in the Sydney Megaregion and these funds could be deployed more quickly with greater integration of State and local investment,” said Mr Mann.UDIA strongly recommends that the Infrastructure Contributions Reform Package be completed so that the analysis by the Productivity Commission and the good work done by the Department of Planning is activated and we can work toward tackling the deep housing supply and affordability crisis in NSW.

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Media Enquiries:Deanna Lane 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au.