Article: Plan reveals city needs 770,000 more homes

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The Sydney Morning Herald: Plan reveals city needs 770,000 more homes

SYDNEY will have to squeeze in almost 50 per cent more homes for an extra 1.7 million people over the next 25 years, with many living in smaller households, a new master plan for the city's growth shows.

More than 70 per cent of the homes will have to be built in urban areas, with limits put on greenfields development to protect agricultural land on the city fringes. But the government has conceded construction levels still lag behind what is needed.

To house 6 million people by 2036, at least 770,000 new dwellings will be required, or 30,000 a year. The Planning Department director-general, Sam Haddad, conceded the present rate was barely 15,000.
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The master plan, released by the Premier yesterday, is the first update of the 2005 Metropolitan Strategy, the government's key urban planning document shaping Sydney's future growth. It says Sydney built only 93,000 dwellings, or an average of 18,600 a year, for the past five years.

For the first time, the strategy take into account the $50.2 billion Metropolitan Transport Plan, which includes improving rail capacity for Sydney's south-west and north-west and the Sydney-Parramatta-Penrith corridor.

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