New South Wales State Government and Housing Affordability
The New South Wales State Government is responsible for the housing affordability crisis in New South Wales.
The Problem
The Sydney plan ("City of Cities: A plan for Sydney's future") asserts that sufficient zoned land will be made available for commercial and housing activity, but it can be seen from the land affordability situation that this is not the case.
New South Wales appears to have delegated more of its zoning to local government, but as can be seen from the City of Cities Planning Map, re-zoning rural land to suburban land does not appear to be within their aegis (except in a few limited areas). This is why I again place the blame for housing affordability squarely on the shoulders of the zoning planners chosen by the New South Wales State Government.
This problem is not new in New South Wales. It occurred before in the 1950s. In 1948-1951, the government made a plan to contain suburban growth (see Land Supply and Demand for why his is a bad thing); not only that, but they only allowed about half the required amount of land for housing. In 1959, the State Minister abolished the green belts chiefly because of concerns about housing affordability. This helped for a while, but suburban growth continued to be curtained by planning authorities, making Sydney's housing affordability one of the lowest in the country.
The Solution
As well as voting for people who will fix the problem by releasing more land, you should be able to lobby your State MP, and the State MPs responsible for the various departments:
- The Minister for Housing is The Hon. Matthew ("Matt") Brown, BMath, LLB(Hons) MP
- The Minister for Planning is The Hon. Frank SARTOR, MP
Your personal State MP can be found by using Members of Parliament search.