Why some approved houses are not built

Central Coast Council estimates that about 75-80% of approved development proposals for dwellings on the Coast are actually built.

The estimate comes as Local Government NSW (LGNSW) rejected recent claims from industry bodies that councils are responsible for the state failing to meet its housing supply targets.

LGNSW said that rising construction costs, labour shortages and higher interest rates for loans were all contributing to a “perfect storm” that continued to negatively impact housing supply across the state.

Central Coast Councillor Corinne Lamont asked for any recent figures that showed the development consents and the corresponding number of dwellings on the Coast, after Coast Community News asked councillors to respond to the LGNSW comments.

Council said its Housing Strategy showed that 10,742 dwellings were approved between July 2014 and April 2021.

An estimate of 8,309 dwellings – or 77.35% – were completed over the same period.

Council said that those figures were estimates only.

Approved development applications generally have five years to commence development and in some cases applicants do not need to advise Council that works have commenced.

In other cases works may have commenced but stalled for one reason or another.  

As such, the collection of reliable data on what applications are commenced and/or completed is difficult for most development types, Council said.

During 2024 the NSW Government set a target for the Central Coast to achieve 9,400 dwellings completed across the local government area by 2029. 

This equates to about 1,567 dwellings built per year.

But Council says its ability to influence completions in any meaningful way is very difficult.

“There are no powers to compel applicants to lodge development proposals for land that they hold, and no powers to compel a developer to commence a development once consent is granted,” Council said.

The NSW Productivity Commission’s Review of Housing Supply Challenges and Policy Options for NSW, which it released in August last year, included a chapter titled Why NSW is not Building Enough Homes Right Now.

The reasons listed were: construction costs and problems with supply of material and skilled labour; the sector being at capacity building infrastructure projects such as health, education, transport leaving limited resources to work in the residential space; and cost of living pressures affecting finances.

In April this year, a State parliamentary review into “zombie DAs” is due to be tabled.

Zombie DAs are historical development consents which were not time limited, including projects which were approved years or sometimes decades ago but remain unfinished.

The inquiry will examine the impact of historical development consents on the NSW planning system, development industry and property ownership. 

The committee will also consider policy and legal solutions to address concerns about historical development consents, including any barriers in using current legal provisions to respond to the issue.

The inquiry will look at what the benefits and costs to taxpayers will be if action is taken on the issue.

Merilyn Vale