{"id":3873,"date":"2025-10-07T05:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T05:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/?post_type=resource&p=3873"},"modified":"2026-02-24T03:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T03:55:56","slug":"housing-now-conference-turns-up-the-heat-on-planning-reform","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/resource\/housing-now-conference-turns-up-the-heat-on-planning-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing Now! Conference Turns Up the Heat on Planning Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NSW Premier Chris Minns declared the state had been \u201coutworked, outsmarted and outbuilt\u201d for three decades, with the state now losing not only retirees but \u201cyounger families in the prime of their working lives\u201d to more affordable markets.

Speaking at the third annual Housing Now!<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>conference in Parramatta\u2014where Hubexo<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>was a major partner\u2014Minns urged bipartisan support for his government\u2019s reforms, pitching the Housing Delivery Authority as the long-awaited circuit-breaker.

\u201cNew South Wales finally has the power to make zoning decisions and approval decisions all at once\u201d, he said. \u201cBut Everest is still in front of us, it\u2019s not behind us, and we have not hit the peak at all.\u201d

Planning Minister Paul Scully\u2019s 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. \u201cOur planning system has become slaves to process\u201d, he said. \u201cThis bill re-establishes a system that delivers outcomes, not paperwork.\u201d

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman called the crisis \u201cdecades in the making\u201d but said the Liberals must be \u201caggressively pro-housing\u201d to reconnect with younger voters.

\u201cOur job as opposition is not to oppose everything. Our job is to be constructive\u201d, 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: \u201cFor a median home, a quarter to a third of the cost is government taxes and charges. That has to change\u201d. He called for stamp duty reform, deferring the Housing and Productivity Contribution, and warned that unchecked immigration without matching supply would keep prices rising.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Industry specialists gathered in Parramatta to discuss the state of NSW’s housing market<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

NIMBY vs YIMBY<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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: \u201cChange is painful. But the stakes are too high. We cannot lock a generation out of housing because their parents won\u2019t countenance density\u201d.

Housing Minister Rose Jackson warned of \u201cugly, short-sighted\u201d opposition to social and affordable housing. \u201cI\u2019ve had MPs write to me saying new arrivals\u2019 \u2018political inclinations\u2019 were a reason to oppose social housing. That\u2019s the stigma we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d

\u201cI want social housing to be the best designed, most beautiful housing on the street\u201d, Jackson said.

\u201cSecure housing changes lives. It gives people the stability to plan, to work, to study, to raise families. Without it, everything else is harder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sydney\u2019s density dilemma<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Industry pressed hard on the \u201cmissing middle\u201d, mid-rise apartments of six to eight storeys near transport hubs that policy is beginning to enable.

BlueScope\u2019s Matt Lloyde said NSW would need 173,000 new dwellings by 2029 and mid-rise would be \u201ca major part of that initiative\u201d, but current delivery methods, \u201cpost-tension slabs, 28 days propping, specialist crews\u201d were too slow. \u201cWe need smarter systems that cut cycle times and costs.\u201d

Billbergia\u2019s Rick Graf pointed to the burden of taxes and charges: \u201cFor a million-dollar apartment, about $400,000 isn\u2019t the apartment. It\u2019s taxes, fees and charges\u201d. He urged contributions be shifted to occupation certificate stage to unlock financing.

Lendlease\u2019s Kimberley Jackson warned feasibility remained the decisive barrier: \u201cThe large outlay of capital upfront, before you even start on site, is a massive deterrent to global investors\u201d.

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. \u201cThere are alternatives to Rosehill, big moves, big sites that can deliver big housing\u201d, he said, while labelling dual occupancy rules among the \u201csilly planning\u201d barriers holding supply back.

Infrastructure leaders said the alternative, endless sprawl, is untenable. Landcom\u2019s Alex Wendler: \u201cSydney needs to become denser. We have no other choice\u201d. Infrastructure NSW\u2019s Tom Gellibrand noted the cost burden of extending networks compared with intensifying land near transport. Sydney Water\u2019s Kate Miles pointed to \u201chidden capacity\u201d in existing systems, with per-capita water use halved since the Millennium Drought: \u201cIt\u2019s not just about new dams and pipes. It\u2019s about using what we have better\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Hubexo matters<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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<\/strong><\/a> sits. As the construction sector\u2019s 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. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSW Premier Chris Minns declared the state had been \u201coutworked, outsmarted and outbuilt\u201d for three decades, with the state now losing not only retirees but \u201cyounger families in the prime of their working lives\u201d to more affordable markets. Speaking at the third annual Housing Now! conference in Parramatta\u2014where Hubexo was a major partner\u2014Minns urged bipartisan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5111,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"resource-category":[21],"class_list":["post-3873","resource","type-resource","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource-category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resource"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5113,"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/3873\/revisions\/5113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apac.hubexo.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-category?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}