Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
An incoming wave of post-pandemic migration is threatening to swamp the local housing market, with only seven out of 33 Sydney councils meeting targets for new homes set by the Greater Cities Commission.
While last Tuesday’s federal budget predicted a net 235,000 new migrants this financial year landing on our shores, bringing with them an estimated $448m boost to the nation’s bottom line, experts are sounding the alarm that the return to post-pandemic normality may make a bad housing situation worse.
Tom Forrest, chief executive of Urban Taskforce, said: “We are caught in a wicked conundrum … The Commonwealth has increased migration numbers and overseas students are also returning to our shores, but rental vacancies are lower than 1 per cent and rents are increasing.
“Normally this would be a signal to the market to invest in additional supply, but the planners stop the market self-correcting. The current system has seen a massive drop off in affordable housing approvals and new builds since 2019.”
Overall, Sydney falls short of its housing targets by around 11,000 units per year.
ABS figures show that in the years prior to the Covid pandemic, around 30 per cent of new migrants settled in NSW, with the vast majority landing in Sydney, particularly the western suburbs. If the trend continues and net annual migration hits 235,000, NSW will potentially have to find homes for around 70,000 more people each year.
Council areas like Parramatta, Canterbury-Bankstown and Blacktown are expected to shoulder much of the load but figures show they are struggling to keep up as well. Of the three, only Blacktown, with a target of 16,500 new homes set by the Greater Cities Commission by 2026 is on track to meet its target.
David Borger, executive director of Business Western Sydney, said the focus had to move from “mega-projects” to making sure that “humans took priority in everything”.
There should be good design, but it needs to be fast design,” he said.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles declined to comment but a spokesman noted that many of the permanent visas being granted and counted in migration numbers will be given to those already here on temporary visas.
