South-West Sydney rezonings will see 16,400 new homes

South-West Sydney rezonings in Glenfield, Leppington and Lowes Creek Maryland are set to create more than 16,000 homes.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes said the NSW Government was responding to the increased demand for greenfield housing as a result of the pandemic.

"We are accelerating these rezonings,” Mr Stokes said.

The rezoning of Leppington Precinct stages two and five will allow for up to 2,400 new homes.

The Lowes Creek Maryland rezoning (above and below) will support 7,000 homes for 20,000 people.

“We’re also finalising the Glenfield Precinct Place Strategy, expected to create up to 7,000 new homes and 2,900 new jobs.

“More homes need more parks, that’s why as part of these land releases we’ve secured 75 hectares of parkland at Glenfield, 62 hectares at Lowes Creek Maryland and 16 hectares at Leppington.”

Tom Forrest, CEO at the Urban Taskforce welcomed the announcement on the rezoning of land for 16,000 new homes in South-West Sydney.

"This announcement shows, that with political will and strong leadership, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment can take the lead to deliver strong growth in housing approvals to drive down the price of new homes.

"This shows what DPIE can do when given clear political leadership. 

"State led rezoning will be the most efficient way to get big projects going.

"The Minister for Planning, in June, committed to fast-tracking the decisions on these precincts. 

"The commitment acknowledged that there is a housing supply crisis in NSW, and this is driving up the prices of homes, making them unaffordable."

Forrest added the most recent new homes completion data was again disappointing for Greater Sydney, with new home completions falling well short of the Greater Sydney Commission and NSW Housing Strategy 2021 targets. 

"The NSW Housing Strategy shows we need at least 40,000 approvals for Greater Sydney every year for the next 20 years.

"In the year to March – there were on 29,500 new home completions despite the construction industry going flat out during 2020 and the first COVID wave.

"Reversing the drop-off in new home and apartment approvals is critical to solving the housing affordability crisis. 

"We will need many more announcements like this if the Minister is committed to making a serious dent into the real, accumulated shortage of approximately 100,000 new homes. 

"The same attention and enthusiasm given to the South-West needs to be extended across Greater Sydney for all housing types," Forrest said.