Less than six months into a national race to build more housing, New South Wales is already falling well behind. Despite the Minns government's efforts to speed up the planning system, the number of homes being approved is decreasing. Now it's been revealed a secret taskforce is working to unclog the state's development pipeline.
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00:006,000 homes a month, that's how many houses and apartments NSW needs to build to reach
00:07its target of 377,000 dwellings in five years.
00:12But ABS data shows the state is approving just a fraction of that, let alone building
00:17it.
00:18Since the National Housing Accord began in July, the number of homes getting the go-ahead
00:22has fallen, whereas in Victoria and Queensland, monthly approvals have gone up.
00:27We're seeing the development community moving from Sydney out to Brisbane and Melbourne.
00:33Developers say fewer applications are being lodged because projects are becoming less
00:37feasible.
00:38When you've got high interest rates and high building costs, the cost to build for a developer
00:43often outstrips the price that future customers are willing to pay.
00:48The NSW planning system is also being blamed.
00:51The planning system has a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy, it's very difficult
00:56to get things through.
00:58The state government says a secret taskforce has freed 13,000 homes from bureaucratic blockages.
01:04The planning profession rejects the idea that shortening assessment times will solve the
01:08problem of housing delivery.
01:10It says the higher costs of labour and land in NSW present greater barriers to feasibility.
01:16So unless those things are addressed, tinkering on the edges of the planning system is not
01:23going to deliver more housing for NSW.
01:25A state trailing behind in the race to build homes.