Sydney has a new property face – you’ll be either happy or angry

Sydney has a new property face – you’ll be either happy or angry
Robert SimeonDecember 17, 2020

With housing affordability now front and centre, it will be a very interesting meeting next week when the Housing Ministers meet to explain what they are doing to address these anomalies to the Treasurer Scott Morrison.

In NSW for example ,there are two very big property elephants about to enter the room in November and December that most don’t know about and they will have massive impacts in the clear majority of Sydney suburbs.

The first are the unprecedented reforms to strata laws which commence on November 30, 2016. Presently with strata properties a developer can’t acquire the entire block without the owners being in 100 per cent agreement, but from November 30, the 100 per cent has been reduced to 75 per cent. Now most who live in a house may well say – no big deal there. There is much, much more that home owners need to know, as property developers will start cherry-picking older style small strata blocks with the view to developing the entire site and they will be much higher than what is there now.

In late 2015, the Baird Government set up what is known today, as the Greater Sydney Commission (GSC), headed by Lucy Turnbull who has been tasked with delivering 680,000 new homes by 2031. Local councils have no say in what the GSC approve as they determine what was previously known as Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Business Control Plan (BCP).Your traditional local council today, merely collects rates, issues parking fines, mows lawns and trims trees, the local planning side of the equation now rests with the GSC.

In December, the GSC will announce nine corridors across Sydney which have been approved for high – density developments. I’m told the nearest to me will be North Sydney/Crows Nest to get the ball rolling and the GSC is smart in that it won’t announce areas that are presently identified as no – go – zones with the lenders.

Now 680,000 new homes are clearly the biggest roll – out in NSW history where every suburb will have a role to play in some shape or form. This would explain why the NSW Government has just rubber stamped a $2 billion allocation to construct the much-awaited tunnel from the northern beaches to the Sydney CBD. Along all the major roads you can expect high-rise where previously local councils have protected historical architectural building merit, although that now appears to have been lost with the forming of the GSC.

Whilst it would be fair and reasonable to suggest that the major roads are the perfect fit for new high density developments I am much more concerned about the property developers cherry – picking the smaller apartment blocks as these are located off the main roads. You don’t change strata ownership laws where a block only requires 75 per cent approval now to sell to developers – for good reason without an explanation – which has not been forthcoming. These significant changes could see property developers running amok in suburbs across Sydney as the ownership ratio reduction reeks of property developers lobbying to get this through to make the acquisition process much easier.

The unknown part of this is that nobody (aside from developers and the GSC) know just how much of the air space above the current roof lines they will be permitted to subdivide?

Of course, the NSW Government is the major winner here as they will collect billions of dollars in stamp duty and land tax on a scale never seen before. This also all but guarantees a strong economy for NSW for quite some considerable time to come so that needs to be given fair consideration also.

The days of a single property owner holding out against a property developer are soon to be over for some of 2,000,000 people in NSW who reside in an apartment. We need to focus on the 680,000 new homes so allow me to put that into perspective – over the next 24 months approximately 230,000 brand new apartments in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will be completed so that 230,000 is approximately just one third of what Sydney needs to produce over the coming 15 years.

This will affect everyone in NSW with Sydney copping the brunt of this building bonanza. So, when Scott Morrison meets with the Housing Ministers next week no doubt he will be smiling along with every property developer in NSW.

Keep an eye out for the GSC announcement in December which should be made public on Christmas eve or sometime after Christmas and before New Year’s Eve – as we all know how Governments work when it comes to handling and announcing such sensitive matters.

MOSMAN – 2088
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 75
Number of houses on the market last week – 63
Number of houses on the market this week – 59
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 60
Number of apartments on the market last week – 47
Number of apartments on the market this week – 45

CREMORNE – 2090
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 6
Number of houses on the market last week – 9
Number of houses on the market this week – 7
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 17
Number of apartments on the market last week – 23
Number of apartments on the market this week – 21

Neutral Bay – 2089
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 6
Number of houses on the market last week – 8
Number of houses on the market this week – 5
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 30
Number of apartments on the market last week – 23
Number of apartments on the market this week – 26

ROBERT SIMEON is a director of Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. 

He has also been writing real estate blog Virtual Realty News since 2000.

Robert Simeon

Robert Simeon is a director of Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. He has also been writing real estate blog Virtual Realty News since 2000.

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