Photo: ANDREW KACIMAIWAI
MAJOR residential developers can now bypass local councils after the NSW Government’s Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) started operations on Friday (December 20).
The Authority will speed up the assessments of major residential projects by bypassing council approval through a State Significant Development (SSD) pathway.
The criteria by which Expressions of Interest (EOI) for projects to be submitted to the HAD for fast-racked processing, and the Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARS) for successful proposals, were also released.
The government says this means that neither assessment and rezoning will need to be approved by councils which it says will cut approval times and speed up the delivery of new homes by more than a year in some cases.
NSW Premier Chris Minns says the changes will help deliver homes for young people, families and workers.
“We acted swiftly to make these latest reforms to establish the Housing Delivery Authority which represent a significant change to how we bring major housing developments to market across NSW,” he says.
“These changes are about making it easier to increase housing supply near existing infrastructure vital to supporting thriving, vibrant communities including more options for young people now and into the future.”
Planning Minister Paul Scully believes this reform will be welcomed.
“The Housing Delivery Authority will provide a consistent approval pathway for major housing projects with more rigour and less red tape,” he says.
“Councils will continue to support the state commitment to increase housing supply by assessing housing developments submitted via the local and regionally significant development approval pathways.”
From January 8, 2025, applicants can submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the HDA for major housing developments worth more than $60 million in Greater Sydney and $30m in regional NSW.
The Authority will meet monthly to consider proposals against its EOI criteria and recommend to the Planning Minister on whether to declare these proposals as SSD.
Government says the current regionally significant development pathway that is assessed by councils and determined by planning panels will still exist but that the HAD, and the new SSD pathway, is another option for residential developers.
PROPERTY COUNCIL
The Property Council of Australia welcomed the release of the EOI criteria, saying they will support efforts to drive faster housing approvals statewide.
Property Council NSW Executive Director Katie Stevenson said the swift release of the EOI criteria reflected the urgency of the housing crisis.
“The Housing Delivery Authority has a clear mandate – to drive more flexible and faster approval pathways across the state so we can get more housing delivered more quickly,” Stevenson said.
She described the speed of the government’s decision to release the EOI criteria and SEARS just weeks after announcing the formation of the HDA as “very positive”.
