The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Planning recently reported that 42,529 housing completions occurred in Sydney from June 2017 to June 2018, and while this was indicative of the success of earlier policies, industry group Urban Taskforce noted that the number of approvals in the city was quickly dropping.

“The current record housing completions in Sydney of 42,529 over the year to June 2018 are a result of the record approval of nearly 60,000 homes in the year to September 2016,” stated Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson.

“Unfortunately approvals in Sydney have now dropped to 52,277 in the year to June 2018 and this will flow on to reduced housing completions in the coming year,” he added.

Urban Taskforce acknowledged that the total figure of completed housing is beyond the average required across 20 years – 36,250 – and that this growth in supply had allowed the reduction of new home prices.

However, the group noted that there were a few policy positions from the three levels of government are causing housing approvals to decrease. Adding to this issue are apprehensions regarding stricter bank lending, which lessens the number of buyers, as well as the recent delays on planning policies for increased densities in Sydney’s key precincts, which has deflated confidence in the housing development industry.

The government was also cautioned regarding the foreign investors’ tax, which has decreased buyers over time.

“The Urban Taskforce encourages the NSW Government to get behind the need to plan for and support a consistent flow of new houses across Sydney so that the large number of jobs involved in housing is sustained,” Johnson concluded.

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