THE chairman of the NSW government’s development agency, Landcom,
has hit out at lengthy delays to government-backed housing projects,
such as Sydney’s $1.7 billion Green Square in the city’s inner south,
blaming layers of policy and high costs.
Landcom chairman and former NSW opposition leader John Brogden made
his comments during an address to a Property Council of Australia lunch
in Sydney yesterday, where he outlined new plans by Landcom to withdraw
from selling houses and the land retail sales market, which currently
sees it in direct competition with private developers.
When
Landcom is merged with the Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority and
becomes UrbanGrowth NSW next year, the new body will also provide
infrastructure to housing projects that it does not own.
This
could include the up-front provision for a $2 million connection to a
sewer main to make a development viable, he said, which was a departure
from Landcom’s traditional role.
“UrbanGrowth’s role is not to compete with a market that can function and deliver housing,” Mr Brogden said.
“Our primary role is to increase the supply of housing in NSW, directly and indirectly.”
Landcom
is involved in more than $5bn worth of NSW projects, including the 14ha
Green Square Town Centre and others such as retailing housing lots at
The Ponds development in Blacktown, in the city’s west.
Mr
Brogden said Green Square, which Landcom is developing with Leighton
Properties and Mirvac Group to accommodate 3500 residents, had taken too
long.
“We are 10 years into the project, with 10 years to go, and we haven’t built a single dwelling,” he said.
“While
we expect to do so within six months, this project has taken too long
and cost too much, despite the patient effort of Landcom and our
partners.”
Mr Brogden said the project was an insight into what UrbanGrowth NSW would do more of.
The
new body, along with other government initiatives, should be able to
halve the time it took to get residential land to market, he said.
UrbanGrowth
NSW was awaiting key policy announcements from state government
departments on areas such as transport and infrastructure before
announcing when and where it would engage in new projects, he said.
It would also await the draft document on a new planning system for NSW from state Planning Minister Brad Hazzard.
A
housing supply sub-committee of cabinet chaired by Mr Hazzard was
established last year by the government to speed up the release of land
for housing projects.
Sydney’s annual housing supply was 25,000
for the past decade, and lot prices had risen 58 per cent in the six
years to 2008, reaching $265,000, Mr Brogden said. In that period, every
mainland capital in every year produced more housing lots than Sydney.