Read SMH article HERE

FOKE comments:

According to the Sydney Morning Herald (26 February 2026) only two development proposals have been approved through the NSW government’s controversial new fast-tracking authority – the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA). The purpose of the HDA is to accelerate apartment constructions.

Only two development proposals fast-tracked by the NSW government’s divisive Housing Delivery Authority – one of them being at Gordon – and which have been approved, one year after it started taking applications to accelerate construction of major apartment complexes.

At the NSW Parliament’s Budget Estimates where the NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully is questioned it was revealed that the the Department of Planning, Infrastructure and Housing approved the proposals after the three-person HDA recommended they be declared as “state significant”, sending them on a faster assessment pathway that bypasses local councils.

The first was for a $110 million complex of 106 units in Gordon.

The 106-unit development in Gordon, approved on 24 December 2025 as the first project under the NSW Government’s fast-track planning reforms, was approved by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure through the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) pathway. 

This project was part of a broader, controversial push by the Minns Labor Government to bypass local council planning controls in Ku-ring-gai for well-located, high-density residential developments. FOKE opposed the SSD 3A–7 Burgoyne Street, 1–3 Pearson Avenue, and 4 Burgoyne Lane, Gordon (within 200–250 metres of Gordon Station) by developer  Develotek.

The SSD was for two connected 7-8 storey towers delivering 106 apartments, designed by Marchese Partners.

It was the first “State Significant Development” (SSD) approved under the HDA pathway to combat the housing crisis, assessed in seven months.

The project was enabled under the NSW Government’s Transport Oriented Development (TOD) planning controls. 

The second HDA approval an approval was at Danks Street in Waterloo for 850 build-to-rent units in nine buildings, which is subject to a separate development application.

Scully is under pressure to deliver 377,000 new homes by 2029 under the National Housing Accord – about 75,000 dwellings a year.

Scully said the Gordon development application was assessed and approved by approximately 184 days. He believed it could be quicker if developers submitted their environmental statements quicker.

FOKE understands that developers have submitted 1070 expressions of interest for large residential developments since the three-person Housing Delivery Authority started accepting applications in January 2025 with:

• 624 projects assessed
• 308 declared as state significant developments
• In total 102,000 potential homes have been decided by the state government.
• 18,000 dwellings in transport-oriented development (TOD) zones were in the planning pipeline of which nearly 1800 have been approved.
• 480 development applications in the low- to mid-rise policy, of which nearly 75 have been approved.
• NSW has completed 42,000 in the first year of the Federal Government’s Housing Accord period, but indications are that it is still short of fulfilling the 157,000 dwellings target to to reach its five-year target.
• 75,000 construction commencements, which is up 10 per cent since 2025
• NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully says widespread reforms to the planning system have sped up construction commencements and shortened approval time frames.

NSW Opposition housing spokesman Chris Rath’s claims the shortfall of new homes is a“colossal failure” and questioned whether “all the rezonings in the world” would help NSW meet its housing targets when developments in parts of Sydney were “stalling because they are no longer feasible”.

NSW LIberals appear to be committed to reaching Federal Labor’s Housing Accord targets.

Planning Minister Scully said that NSW Labor’s planning system reforms had contributed to an increase in construction commencements, and a decrease in approval time frames for residential projects.

He also admitted that housing in some areas is more feasible and that prices are related to “pent-up demand” and “restricted supply” and that “unfortunately” the price mechanism isn’t working “in the interests of people who are looking to rent or to buy a home”

Scully also acknowledged surging land values across Sydney, interest rates, access to finance, labour costs and shortages, and macroeconomic conditions.

Scully was also questioned about why the NSW Government’s own development arm, Landcom, had abandoned plans to build up to 1500 homes across three projects on Sydney’s outskirts.

27 January 2026