Thousands of homes will be built around railway stations in Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong to help the housing crisis.
The NSW Government has released details of a ‘Transport Oriented Development Program’ that includes 31 snap rezonings across NSW to allow for 138,000 new homes to be created within 400 metres of metro of suburban railway stations and town centres.
The stations included in Newcastle are Adamstown, Booragul, Hamilton, Kotara, Morisset, and the Newcastle Interchange.
The Minns Government said housing supply is not keeping up with demand.
Today’s announcement comes after the government last week announcing they would amend state planning policies to override Councils when it came to houses near train stations that didn’t allow for enough density.
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said the housing crisis means all levels of government and industry need to step up to our shared responsibility to get more people into homes faster and meet our collective National Housing Accord commitment.
“These sites have been selected because they have infrastructure to build on and for that reason they will access a State Significant Development pathway that speed their approval’
“Today’s announcement works together with recently announced reforms to create more low and midrise housing, as well as our budget commitments of $520m and the infrastructure contribution reforms. They are critical pieces of our plan to create more well located homes and to do it faster.
“We can’t continue to turn our back on the next generation of young people who are undoubtedly being hit hardest by the housing crisis.
“These homes will also create choice, so essential workers can live close to their jobs in the type of housing they want.
“Housing choice means not everything is highrise. We’re focused on building well designed communities, rich with diverse housing types.”