An SOS [Save our Sydney] Editorial from SMH
or, for everything that's great about Sydney, it still needs some strata focused help …
[5:30 minutes estimated reading time, 1077 words]
I’m a Sydney boy (born and bred).
So, even though I’m spending a lot of time in Melbourne these days, I love Sydney. It’s spectacularly beautiful, cosmopolitan, internationally recognised and has fantastic weather.
But it’s become a hard place to live regardless of where you are, how much money you have [or don’t have], what you do in that city, or, your age.
That’s partly due to traffic congestion but mostly it’s the result of the impact of Sydney’s insane property market. The long-term undersupply of housing stock in Sydney has fuelled rising housing costs (whether you’re buying or renting) that are now at crises levels and are causing a range of adverse side effects: from extended working commutes, job dislocation for many people, longer working hours, financial pressure, emotional stress, etc, etc.
That’s not right and it needs fixing (and fast).
I’m not the right expert to do that, but I can see and understand the fundamentals of Sydney’s problems and solutions. So, it seems, can Bevan Shields, the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.
His editorial to SMH readers from last week (that I’m reproducing in full below) neatly and fairly describes Sydney’s housing situation. It’s excellent.
Read, think about it, and decide how you can help Sydney too.
Sydney needs it!
November 14, 2023
Francesco …
BEVANS SHIELD’S SMH 10 NOVEMBER 2023 EDITORIAL
10 November 2023
Before the March state election, the Herald published an editorial expressing concern that the Labor opposition had fallen short of presenting a compelling vision for the future of NSW. The criticism was justified at the time and still applies to some aspects of Labor in government.
But one emerging bright spot is a growing focus by Premier Chris Minns on the housing crisis paralysing our city and state. We have had a trickle of hints over the past few months about what the government’s new housing policy might look like, but the unveiling of a detailed policy now looks imminent.
Subscribers have been gripped by the Herald’s recent revelation that the government is contemplating a series of priority development zones near public transport as part of a signature push to boost the state’s housing supply. As state political reporters Michael McGowan and Max Maddison revealed, the centrepiece of the reforms – which are yet to receive final sign-off by cabinet – will be seven state-led priority rezonings around Sydney metro stations.
The seven sites are expected to be announced this month, as is the fate of the multibillion-dollar Metro West project. The seven sites are likely to include Crows Nest, Bankstown and Kellyville or Bella Vista. Other suburbs that have been part of ongoing government discussions are Sydenham, Waterloo on the City and South-West rail line, Burwood, and The Bays precinct near Rozelle.
In a speech to the Sydney Institute last Tuesday, Minns identified housing affordability and availability as the largest single challenge facing the public, and his government. He said the state needed a building boom on a scale to rival the 132,000 houses built in NSW between the end of World War II and March 1949.
The problem is we aren’t building anywhere near enough homes to meet demand. As state political editor Alexandra Smith explains here, Australia needs to build 1.2 million dwellings over the next five years. NSW alone needs 377,000 new homes but the country’s most populous state builds fewer than other jurisdictions manage. Last year, NSW built just 48,000 compared to Victoria’s 59,000.
Minns told the Sydney Institute crowd that 23 years ago the median dwelling in greater Sydney sold for about six-and-a-half times a mid-career teacher’s salary.
“By 2022, that same home cost 14 times that salary,” Minns said. “These numbers add up to paint a damning picture. When it comes to housing, Sydney for too long has not kept up with its changing population. If we are going to tackle this crisis, we need to think big and bold. And we need to act fast.”
I want the Herald to be a champion for those who aspire to own or rent in Sydney but are really struggling to make it happen. As Minns noted last week, people once questioned only whether they could afford to buy in Sydney but the crisis is now so great many also wonder whether they can even afford to rent.
The latest Domain Rent Report, released in early October, found the asking rent for a typical unit is now $130 a week higher than it was a year ago.
The median asking rent for Sydney units is now $680 a week after increasing by 23.6 per cent over the past year, while the median house rent reached $720 a week – $70 more than a year ago and $20 more than three months ago.
Beyond not building enough homes, we are also building them in the wrong locations. Sydney can’t keep expanding on its fringes and the need to have higher density in existing suburbs – particularly those serviced by good public transport links – is obvious.
NSW productivity commissioner Peter Achterstraat, who has argued Sydney needs to build higher and more densely in the CBD and inner suburbs, reckons that increasing average building heights by three storeys could alone provide 45,000 new homes over five years.
Adding more housing to established suburbs will be the trickiest challenge for Minns to navigate. Getting it done will require real policy nous and political skill, particularly given he will need to override some of the control certain NIMBY councils have over planning rules. In another encouraging sign, Minns this week said he is not afraid to push ahead with his commitment to turbocharge density in Sydney by bypassing councils and that voters “could expect more of this”. He will also need to make sure new developments are of a much higher design quality than some of the rubbish we have seen pop up over recent years.
It didn’t capture a lot of attention this week, but on Wednesday former Sydney Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull and her husband, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, delivered the Australian Institute of Architects Griffin Lecture at the National Press Club in Canberra. The address was fascinating but I thought a remark from Lucy – that we need to do “everything all at once” to solve the crisis – was particularly apt.
Other governments have tried to fix the city’s housing crisis and fallen short. Can Minns break the curse? I genuinely wish him the best of luck because the economic and social consequences of continued failure will be nothing short of diabolical.
