https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LilfqOPrZY&list=PLDTPrMoGHssAW8ipBtDkMIU297wWTLhDP&index=30&t=5s
The NSW Government’s Low and Mid-Rise (LMR) Housing Policy will reshape Greater Sydney. LMR introduces non-discretionary (non-refusal) development standards for height and floor space ratio (FSR) in R3 medium zones within 800 metres of 171 designated town centres in NSW .
In short, this means 6 storey apartment buildings within a 400 metre radius of the designated town centres, and 4 storey apartment buildings within 400 to 800 metres. Developers may also apply for the affordable housing bonus, which offers a 30% uplift in height and FSR if 15% affordable housing is provided onsite for only 15 years.
Terraces, town houses and manor houses (up to 3 storeys) are now allowed in both the R2 low rise density and R3 zones.
Dual occupancies (two dwellings on a single lot, eg duplexes) and semi-detached dwellings (side-by-side homes on subdivided lots) are now permitted with development consent in all R2 Low Density Residential zones across NSW, except in exempted areas.
While heritage items and high-risk flood or bushfire zones are exempt (Blue Mountains), the policy applies to Heritage Conservation Areas across Greater Sydney.
The Government says that the designated town centres are ideal to provide more low and mid-rise housing as they have:
- a wide range of shops, services and amenities
- frequent public transport
- infrastructure capacity.
But numerous councils provided detailed submissions to the Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) explaining that that many of the designated town centres failed to meet all or any of the above criteria. For the most part, DPHI chose to ignore or discount this advice. For more information, see Summary of key provisions Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy
Transcript
8 April 2025
Fortunes are being made, and neighbourhoods transformed, as new laws come into effect that could change Sydney forever. Suburbs and streets that had been off-limits for major developments are now up for grabs, and developers have mobilised, virtually overnight, to buy up big time. 7.30’s Adam Harvey reports.
Transcript
0:00sorry I’ve just got to respond to this
0:03i’ll send you an email paperwork
0:05suggestions okay leave that with you got
0:07to go why don’t we go to Rose Bay first
0:09and have a little bit of a look around
0:12we sold this site here under the old
0:14zoning can I just take this if you don’t
0:16mind it’s actually a really important
0:17one how are
0:19you one of my sales guys just found
0:22another property for you that could be a
0:24good flip so I’ll send that to you also
0:26i think they’re talking around six early
0:28sixes for the house and resale will be
0:30around 11 11 and a half sydney real
0:33estate agent Ricko is on a roll okay
0:36thanks guys bye
0:40since the reforms have come through
0:42literally 3 and 1/2 weeks ago it uh it’s
0:46electric it’s you snooze you lose my
0:50coffee ink tastes gone through the roof
0:52new planning rules kicked in last month
0:54that favor much bigger developments rick
0:57is helping neighbors band together to
1:00make the most of them so 16 17 18 and 20
1:06we’ve got to try and amalgamate those as
1:08a development site they’re going to get
1:09some good harbor views it’s like playing
1:12poker and having all four aces this is a
1:15once in
1:16a-lifetime change
1:19homes in Sydney’s Rose Bay were already
1:22astronomically expensive now some have
1:26doubled in
1:28price we’ve had clients that have wanted
1:31to sell the property say for $8 million
1:33um she effectively just sold for just
1:35under $16 million and you wouldn’t even
1:38know it’s happening there’s no for sale
1:39signs outside any of these places it’s
1:41all happening in back rooms and over the
1:44phone right all these deals are being
1:46put off market 98% of the public that
1:49live in these areas have no idea what’s
1:52going
1:52[Music]
1:54on so what is going on at 171 sites near
2:00train stations and shopping centers
2:02across Sydney the Hunter and Ilawara the
2:05state government has changed planning
2:06controls to make it easier to build low
2:09to mid-rise housing the changes are
2:11complex but in many areas singlestory
2:14homes will make way for small apartment
2:16buildings and town houses and within 400
2:20meters of stations and shops three-story
2:22apartment buildings can become six or
2:24even eight if developers commit to
2:27offering cheaper rents
2:29so even if we just look at uh the
2:31eastern suburbs the core area of the
2:33eastern suburbs you’ve got uh Edgecliffe
2:36Double Bay here and Rose Bay further to
2:38the east so you can see all these shaded
2:40areas is where this is happening so even
2:43by eye you can see that it’s more than
2:4550% of these particular zones planner
2:48George Caravanas’s firm is exceptionally
2:51busy modifying existing development
2:53applications and lodging new ones in the
2:56last 3 weeks we’ve had at least 100
2:59inquiries of real projects and you
3:02didn’t think it was going to happen in
3:04some of these suburbs no I didn’t i was
3:06uh it came as a surprise to me and a lot
3:08of my developer clients uh we certainly
3:10didn’t think it was going to be
3:12introduced for a lot of the inner
3:14suburbs this has to be the one single
3:18change the biggest single change that
3:20I’ve ever experienced
3:22vast parts of Sydney are about to become
3:25construction sites the New South Wales
3:28government says the pain will be worth
3:30it the goal is
3:33377,000 new homes over 5 years
3:38[Music]
3:40people are finding it increasingly
3:42difficult to either uh buy a house or
3:44even find a place to rent so we needed
3:46uh big solutions and we needed to get on
3:49with it because for too long uh this has
3:51been building up it was going to change
3:52the character of Sydney though that
3:54those rows of singlestory homes that are
3:56within a reasonable distance of of
3:58shopping centers and train stations
3:59they’re going to go right yeah it will
4:01but cities aren’t museums cities grow
4:03and change and evolve over time
4:07this map gives a sense of the breadth of
4:09the change to understand the impact you
4:13need to zoom in in the upper northshore
4:16suburb of Gordon the purple zone shows
4:18where apartment blocks of up to eight
4:21stories could now be built in Cartoum
4:24Avenue developers are swooping buying up
4:28the properties around David Tinddale’s
4:30twostory
4:32[Music]
4:34home the minimum kind of amalgamation
4:37that residents are doing is around about
4:40three houses um my neighbors have
4:43amalgamated into a group of eight houses
4:46there is big money on the table
4:49my understanding is that somewhere
4:51between two and two and a half times the
4:54current market value of the house
4:57simultaneously unfortunately our market
4:59value has dropped
5:02significantly developers aren’t
5:04interested in David’s house because it’s
5:06heritage listed and cannot be demolished
5:08to make way for
5:10apartments once construction starts
5:12David’s not that keen on living here
5:14either we don’t want to be surrounded by
5:18tall apartments lose our privacy get
5:21overshadowed lose our property value he
5:24says about 70 heritage homeowners in the
5:26local Kuringai Council are in a similar
5:29position we don’t think it’s reasonable
5:32that heritage owners should be marooned
5:34among the high-rise and so at the moment
5:38we are lobbying council to see what we
5:41can do about removing our heritage
5:43status
5:44some of the changes are a long way from
5:46train stations and shopping malls
5:49development is coming to the spectacular
5:51slopes of Sydney Harbor above Balmoral
5:54Beach potentially single houses and
5:57they’ll have four up to six story or
6:00possibly eightstory buildings built
6:02right next to them and it’s going to
6:04change the whole landscape of Mossman
6:06and of all the suburbs around Sydney in
6:08theory apartment buildings have always
6:10been allowed in this piece of paradise
6:13but they were rarely approved by council
6:16the new rules favor development presume
6:19developers over the years have wanted to
6:20build up but haven’t been able to by
6:23because of quite possibly yes and we we
6:27don’t have that that option anymore so
6:30what can council do to to try and stop
6:32some of the um larger or or developments
6:35that you consider inappropriate there’s
6:37very little that we can do the reality
6:40is we need more homes uh the reality is
6:43uh that if we don’t change uh planning
6:46laws we don’t make sure that we’ve got
6:47the capacity to deliver that we won’t
6:49solve the problem that doesn’t mean
6:51councils will go down without a fight
6:54george Caravanas is expecting to be in
6:56the planning courts within months
6:58challenging council rejections i think
7:01they will be fighting back uh quite
7:03fiercely whether it’s coffee or in
7:05Sydney’s east let’s get a double
7:07espresso with a little bit of extra hot
7:08water deal maker Ricko is just trying to
7:12keep up this is my seventh for the day
7:15seven like two shots in each one so your
7:1714th shot of coffee until these reforms
7:19came through I was off coffee for 17
7:21years true story for the last three and
7:23a half weeks three and a half weeks I’ve
7:24taken up coffee again
7:26i talk a lot faster
7:29[Music]