SYDNEY residents are in danger of paying an additional $75,000 in infrastructure-related costs when buying a homes on outer-suburban fringes.
This stark comparison urged New South Wales to pursue purchasing newer houses in more underdeveloped neighborhoods to make them more affordable and alleviate the ongoing housing crisis in Australia.
A report published by the New South Wales Productivity Commission (NSWPC) showed that each home was $75,000 more costly, with less than 20% of new dwellings if built within 10 kilometers of the city center between 2016 and 2021.
The agency emphasized that at least 900,000 additional homes were needed in NSW by 2041, including 550,000 across Sydney.
Meanwhile, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns believes the state could meet a target of 900,000 new dwellings by 2041 without imposing penalties on wealthy local councils that resisted higher density.
Overall, Premier Minns assured that the state government already had the power to rezone high-density inner areas, which would reverse the former government’s housing strategy, under which about 70 percent of development was in the urban areas, making it more expensive and not accessible for vulnerable groups.
The housing affordability problem has contributed to sustained high levels of homelessness in Australia, where people pay too much of their incomes on soaring rent prices.
A recent report from Homelessness Australia warned of how the housing crisis and rising financial stress are pushing more than 1,600 people into homelessness each month as demand for sheltering services soars.
