By Michael Koziol and Deborah Snow
The NSW government is considering a shake-up of state-owned corporation Landcom to focus on building homes instead of selling off land to developers, as planners narrow down a list of Sydney sites for a housing density blitz.
It is also consulting stakeholders on a new transit-oriented state environmental planning policy, or SEPP, that would apply to land around train stations to allow higher density housing, which was an election commitment.
Government land next to the Bella Vista and Kellyville metro stations, which has been planned by Landcom but remains undeveloped.
Landcom has already been given extra powers. However, senior government sources, who did not want to be named because they were discussing internal policy debate, said they were considering changes that would reorient the corporation to direct housing development. This would also help it act as a counter-cyclical stimulant for housing growth.
It comes as Hills Shire Council sounds the alarm over public land near Bella Vista and Kellyville metro stations which is still empty despite being rezoned in 2017 for 8400 homes. That was later reduced to 5700 homes under Landcom’s concept designs, which were approved in December.
General manager Michael Edgar said the government should “act directly” on the housing crisis by ordering Landcom to build instead of selling the land to developers.
“These sites, which remain wholly owned by the NSW government and are directly served by the metro, are still vacant despite planning work being undertaken and a [developer] contributions framework being put in place by council,” he said.
Landcom’s vision for the precinct around Kellyville metro station. Hills Shire Council says the government developer should now build it itself.
“In council’s view, the NSW government could instruct Landcom to get on with the job of building and supplying these homes now rather than letting the economic conditions of the market determine their delivery timeframe.”
Planning Minister Paul Scully would not be drawn on future changes, but said Landcom had a “bigger role” to play in the housing system, particularly with infill development.
“It got knocked around by the previous government... I think it was actually being set up to be sold. We are getting it to look at how [it] might do some of the infill work that needs to be done,” he said.
“They have got a job to do, and it’s not in competition with the private sector, but it’s being the government’s development arm. The private sector alone, the public sector alone, won’t solve the issue we’ve got.”
For many Sydney sites – such as the precincts around metro stations – Landcom does the master planning and then sells the land to developers. In 2021-22, it supplied 1242 home sites to the market, which chair Peter Roberts noted was “less than in previous years”.
In December 2021, it sold 60,000 square metres of land at Edmondson Park in the south-west and Thornton, near Penrith, to Urban Property Group. Earlier that year it finally sold 1.8 hectares of “Lachlan’s Line” in Macquarie Park to Landmark Group for $130 million, two years after listing.
Elsewhere, mostly in greenfield sites on the city fringe, Landcom is the developer, such as the new neighbourhood Macarthur Heights, which has sold all of its 966 lots.
The government has given Landcom the ability to self-approve proposals for affordable housing projects up to 75 dwellings, and it can now access a state-significant approval pathway for large projects. It is also identifying sites for build-to-rent schemes on the north and south coasts.
Planning Minister Paul Scully says Landcom has a “bigger role” to play in the housing system.Credit: Oscar Colman
In Sydney, the government is narrowing down a list of about 20 sites where it can build homes densely and quickly. Sources outside government said public land between Central and Eveleigh, around Bella Vista metro station and St Marys had been mentioned as potential target areas.
In a statement, Landcom said it had offered four residential sites to market across several of the precincts in the Sydney Metro project, worth 2845 dwellings. Construction is in various phases, it said, and the first residents are expected to move in early next year.
“Landcom does not land bank, and has not had a bank of developable land since around 2014. Landcom stages land releases of master-planned communities in line with relevant approvals, construction, and market conditions,” a spokesperson said.
Landcom said it was waiting for Hills Shire Council to approve voluntary planning agreements regarding parks and community infrastructure for the Bella Vista and Kellyville metro stations.
Documents show Landcom kept the maximum building heights at both stations within the local environment plan limits; only a handful of buildings were allowed to reach 68 metres (about 20 storeys) in Bella Vista.
The plans stipulated a minimum of 5 per cent affordable housing, but the new government has committed to 30 per cent affordable, social and diverse housing on public land developments.
Landcom was set up by Labor under Neville Wran, and was subject to several name and identity changes by the former Coalition government. In August 2022, then-planning minister Anthony Roberts issued Landcom a new “statement of priorities” focused on regional NSW.
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