There are few policy objectives as fundamental as ensuring Sydney has the housing supply it needs. Cities that cannot meet this need will lose the competition for talent with cities which can and struggle to sustain economic growth. While supply has lifted significantly in Sydney since the low point of 2010, it still hasn’t reached the highs achieved at the peak of delivery in the first years of this century. It is also still lower than the housing targets in a Plan for Growing Sydney, which we must achieve year-in, year-out if we are to meet the needs of future generations.

We are not meeting either the housing needs of Sydneysiders – a significant proportion of whom leave in their 20s and 30s for other more affordable cities – or serving the interests of the economy of what is currently the most productive city in Australia. Recent research from the US shows that if supply in the nation’s most productive cities reached the levels of the most ‘housing-friendly’ cities, national GDP would be raised by up to 10%.1 We believe a similar result would be achieved in Australia if there were a step-change in housing delivery in Sydney. Housing stress damages the productivity – as well as equity – of a city. And given Sydney’s centrality to Australian wealth-generation at the moment, this is a matter of national importance.

With Sydney now acknowledged as having one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world, with supply and demand remaining deeply out of balance despite a recent uplift in delivery, with rising homelessness and increasing numbers on the social housing register and with even those on average earnings finding it difficult to find affordable homes to rent or to buy, it should be clear that ‘business as usual’ policies will not achieve the housing breakthrough Sydney needs. We need some new solutions if we are to provide homes for all and to ensure Sydney’s economic momentum is maintained.