NSW Premier Chris Minns declared the state had been “outworked, outsmarted and outbuilt” for three decades, with the state now losing not only retirees but “younger families in the prime of their working lives” to more affordable markets.
Speaking at the third annual Housing Now! conference in Parramatta—where Hubexo was a major partner—Minns urged bipartisan support for his government’s reforms, pitching the Housing Delivery Authority as the long-awaited circuit-breaker.
“New South Wales finally has the power to make zoning decisions and approval decisions all at once”, he said. “But Everest is still in front of us, it’s not behind us, and we have not hit the peak at all.”
Planning Minister Paul Scully’s reforms would collapse 22 referral bodies into a single Development Coordination Authority, halve approval times for low-risk projects and enshrine the Housing Delivery Authority in law. “Our planning system has become slaves to process”, he said. “This bill re-establishes a system that delivers outcomes, not paperwork.”
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman called the crisis “decades in the making” but said the Liberals must be “aggressively pro-housing” to reconnect with younger voters.
“Our job as opposition is not to oppose everything. Our job is to be constructive”, he said, signalling support for density around transport hubs and a Queensland-style one-stop planning authority.
But he flagged feasibility as the critical barrier: “For a median home, a quarter to a third of the cost is government taxes and charges. That has to change”. He called for stamp duty reform, deferring the Housing and Productivity Contribution, and warned that unchecked immigration without matching supply would keep prices rising.
NIMBY vs YIMBY
Community resistance remains fierce, though YIMBY groups are beginning to counterbalance entrenched homeowner lobbies. For both sides of politics, it is also a generational divide. Younger voters demand density, while older homeowners resist it.
Speakman acknowledged the politics: “Change is painful. But the stakes are too high. We cannot lock a generation out of housing because their parents won’t countenance density”.
Housing Minister Rose Jackson warned of “ugly, short-sighted” opposition to social and affordable housing. “I’ve had MPs write to me saying new arrivals’ ‘political inclinations’ were a reason to oppose social housing. That’s the stigma we’re dealing with.”
“I want social housing to be the best designed, most beautiful housing on the street”, Jackson said.
“Secure housing changes lives. It gives people the stability to plan, to work, to study, to raise families. Without it, everything else is harder.”
Sydney’s density dilemma
Industry pressed hard on the “missing middle”, mid-rise apartments of six to eight storeys near transport hubs that policy is beginning to enable.
BlueScope’s Matt Lloyde said NSW would need 173,000 new dwellings by 2029 and mid-rise would be “a major part of that initiative”, but current delivery methods, “post-tension slabs, 28 days propping, specialist crews” were too slow. “We need smarter systems that cut cycle times and costs.”
Billbergia’s Rick Graf pointed to the burden of taxes and charges: “For a million-dollar apartment, about $400,000 isn’t the apartment. It’s taxes, fees and charges”. He urged contributions be shifted to occupation certificate stage to unlock financing.
Lendlease’s Kimberley Jackson warned feasibility remained the decisive barrier: “The large outlay of capital upfront, before you even start on site, is a massive deterrent to global investors”.
Housing Now chair David Borger said the state must go further, pointing to 122 new precincts in its 2026 platform and warning the collapse of the Rosehill racecourse deal, once flagged for 25,000 homes, still looms large. “There are alternatives to Rosehill, big moves, big sites that can deliver big housing”, he said, while labelling dual occupancy rules among the “silly planning” barriers holding supply back.
Infrastructure leaders said the alternative, endless sprawl, is untenable. Landcom’s Alex Wendler: “Sydney needs to become denser. We have no other choice”. Infrastructure NSW’s Tom Gellibrand noted the cost burden of extending networks compared with intensifying land near transport. Sydney Water’s Kate Miles pointed to “hidden capacity” in existing systems, with per-capita water use halved since the Millennium Drought: “It’s not just about new dams and pipes. It’s about using what we have better”.
Why Hubexo matters
With reform, resistance and feasibility colliding, data has never been more critical. NSW must deliver hundreds of thousands of homes against rising costs, skill shortages and community pushback. Political will is hardening, but success will hinge on execution, knowing which projects can move, where bottlenecks will form and how to manage risk.
That is where Hubexo sits. As the construction sector’s leading intelligence provider, used by developers, architects, builders, suppliers and governments alike, it connects live project data, planning pathways and market insights to turn ambition into delivery.
Housing is no longer a debate. It is a generational contract and the tools to deliver it at scale already exist.