NSW lagging behind all states on housing approvals

The  building  home approvals  figures  released  by the Australian  Bureau  of  Statistics  today  for September, have NSW’s approvals at half that of Victoria which has a lower population. For every 10,000 people NSW has 47 approvals to Victoria’s 109 approvals and Queensland’s 73. NSW was the lowest in Australia on a per capita basis.

The  Urban  Taskforce’s  chief  executive,  Chris  Johnson  said  “while  the  previous  month of  August did show a more positive trend for NSW this seems to have been due to unusual circumstances”. “These results for September 2011  compared to ten years ago for the same period represent a34% reduction in home approvals”, Chris Johnson said.

“While it is admiral for the state government to announce the rezoning of thousands of housing lots in Western Sydney, the reality is that many of these are not turning into approvals. This may well be due to high levies imposed on new housing lots in NSW.

The  NSW government  needs  to address  this  critical  issue  as  to why   NSW is  lagging  so much behind other states”, Mr Johnson said  The  Urban  Taskforce  is  a property  development  industry  group,  representing  Australia’s  most prominent property developers and equity financiers.

Thank you Urban Taskforce for this article