Mark Speakman
NSW Leader of the Opposition
Scott Farlow
Shadow Minister for Planning and Public Spaces
Shadow Minister for Housing
Twelve months on from the start of the National Housing Accord, the verdict is in: Labor's housing plan is failing and failing badly.
New ABS figures released today show NSW has fallen 43.5% short of its year-one target. Just 42,581 homes have been delivered over the past 12 months. This contrasts with the 75,400 required each year to stay on track for our Housing Accord commitment of 377,000 homes over the next five years.
Labor's own budget papers admit NSW is set to fall 137,000 homes short of the National Accord target, forecasting just 240,000 completions over five years. One year down, and the Minns Labor Government is already far behind with no credible plan to catch up.
Feasibility remains the number one problem for new housing supply. Builders and developers are warning that projects simply don't stack up and the situation is getting worse under the current tax regime.
Part of Labor's failure is the $12,000 Housing and Productivity Contribution. The Minns Labor Government in 2023 introduced this tax on every new home in Greater Sydney, paid before construction even begins.
The NSW Coalition has called for the tax to be paused immediately. A Coalition Government would pause the Housing and Productivity Contribution for the life of the Housing Accord until 30 June 2029, and defer its collection to the occupation certificate stage after that.
Density needs to be matched with the infrastructure to support new housing growth, which will enable projects to get off the ground in the first place. Under Labor, little to no additional infrastructure funding has been allocated for the 37 TOD precincts or 171 affected suburbs under the low and mid-rise reforms.
Shadow Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Scott Farlow, said the latest figures confirm what the building industry and homebuyers already know: there's no feasible path to delivering the homes NSW needs under Labor.
"After one full year of the Accord, it's clear Labor's plan is failing. The numbers don't lie and families across NSW are paying the price. One year in, all Labor have delivered is a worse housing crisis," Mr Farlow said.
"Chris Minns has promised his housing policies would fix the housing crisis. Instead, we're seeing approvals falling, commencements stalling, and the pipeline drying up."
"At a time when costs are up and confidence is low, Labor has chosen to make it even harder to build. You don't deliver more homes by taxing the ones you haven't built yet. Higher taxes and charges continue to make the dream of owning a home even harder for young people and families."
"Labor wants more people to live in communities without the roads, schools, hospitals or services to support them. The concept of master planning has been abandoned by Labor."
"Chris Minns and Labor must finally face up to reality: NSW can't tax our way to more housing and new housing must come with infrastructure investment. Labor's one year anniversary of housing failure makes the need for change even clearer," Mr Farlow said.
