Sign NSW E-Petition

‘Save Genuinely Affordable Housing from New Planning Rule Exploitation‘.

Closing date Fri 31 July 2026

SIGN HERE

House:	Legislative Assembly
Petitioner:	Ms Jacqueline Park
Member:	Alex Greenwich
Number of signatories:	1570
Closing date:	Fri 31 July 2026
Status:	Open

Petition text

To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,

The In-Fill Affordable Housing Bonus (AHB) is being exploited by developers to build luxury apartments while failing to deliver genuinely affordable housing.

Across Sydney—including Darlinghurst, Marrickville, North Sydney, Paddington and Potts Point—modest studio or one-bedroom apartments are being demolished, displacing lower-income renters. Essential workers, young people, and vulnerable residents are pushed out of their communities due to the destruction of diverse housing.

The AHB grants 30% additional height and floor space but requires only 15% affordable housing at a 20% rental discount for 15 years. The financial value of the extra density greatly exceeds the value of discounted rent.

Shelter NSW states this temporarily 20% discounted rent remains far above suburb averages while unattainable for households meeting affordable housing income criteria. Perversely, development is concentrated in high-value areas where luxury apartments provide the highest returns.

The AHB is simultaneously undermining local amenity, heritage and infrastructure through unanticipated pressure on constrained capacity.

The petitioners ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to:

• Prohibit AHB where it results in net loss of low-cost housing
• Ensure new affordable housing is genuinely affordable—capped at 30% of household income, retained in perpetuity
• Introduce location-based limits to the $75 million SSD threshold
• Assess infrastructure, amenity and heritage impacts prior to granting density
• Establish a Parliamentary Inquiry to publicly evaluate the AHB’s operation

We urge the Legislative Assembly to review the AHB before Sydney becomes a city only the wealthy can afford.

Sign petition HERE

Doing Density Better supports THIS PETITION.

About Doing Density Better

Doing Density Better is an alliance of NSW community action groups established as a Working Group of the Better Planning Network Inc (BPN).

FOKE is a member.

It was officially launched at NSW Parliament House on 7 July 2026. Doing Density Better is supporting communities amplify their concerns about NSW Government’s planning failures.

Politicians need to realise that density done better is a real issue which they must respond to.

You can watch the launch presentations on YouTube. A link is in the newsletter below as well as speeches, dates for upcoming meetings, resources.   

A full list of all groups can be found on our website:  https://doing-density-better.netlify.app

Doing Density Better will be having an online meeting on 13 August 2026.

July 2026