The new reforms change planning controls within 800 metres, or a 10-minute walk, around 171 town centres and stations to allow dual-occupancies, terraces, townhouses and residential flat buildings across metropolitan Sydney, the Central Coast, Illawarra-Shoalhaven and Hunter regions.

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In the Port Stephens LGA, these include the Nelson Bay and Raymond Terrace town centres.

The changes will remove the restriction on developing terraces, townhouses and low-rise residential flat buildings on R1 and R2 zoned land, while also removing the restriction on delivering medium rise residential flat buildings on R3 and R4 zoned land in these areas.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said the policy fills a gap in new housing supply.

“Allowing low and mid-rise housing in more locations will help increase the number of homes in our state, improve affordability for renters and buyers and give people a choice on the type of home they want to live in,” Mr Scully said.

“There has been increasing demand for well-located, medium-density housing.

“These reforms build on the reforms introduced on 1 July 2024, which allowed dual occupancies and semi-detached homes to be built on nearly all low-rise residentially zoned land in NSW.”

The peak body for local government in NSW has responded to the policy, warning the “one-size-fits-all” approach fails to address community infrastructure needs and is a missed opportunity to provide urgently needed affordable housing, particularly for essential workers in key locations.

The President of Local Government NSW (LGNSW), Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM has indicated that while each council would have views on specific sites, continued collaboration and transparent partnership with the State Government was needed if the policy was going to succeed.

“We’re glad to see the changes outlined by the Minister will still allow councils to assess important development conditions including parking, light access and minimum frontages, but it’s important to note that will be set against new ‘non-refusal’ standards that are being imposed on us by the State,” said Mayor Miller.

“When I met with the Planning Minister earlier this week, I made it very clear to him that together we can achieve much better outcomes if the State Government continues to work with councils when it comes to delivering housing solutions.

“The State Government insists that allowing these housing types will boost housing supply around transport and town centres, improve affordability, maintain the character of an area and build better communities.

“But that will only happen if the increase in density is matched with proper and significant infrastructure support from the State Government – we’re talking about schools, libraries, sports fields and playgrounds, adequate hospitals, even the basics of road infrastructure and sewerage and water supply.”

Mayor Miller appreciated that the Government had responded to councils’ concerns about applying the policy to land that was prone to bushfires and floods, and had listened to feedback for areas where greater density would lead to unacceptable traffic and congestion impacts.

However Mayor Miller expressed disappointment that there was no inclusion of affordable housing mandates in the policy.

“The absence of any contribution for in-perpetuity affordable housing is a significant missed opportunity to address this dire need, particularly for workers who carry out essential jobs in our communities,” said Mayor Miller.

“These key elements of much needed infrastructure and affordable housing mandates need to be in place from the very start so developers can factor that into the cost of land,” she said.

The policy will come into effect on 28 February 2025.

For more information visit https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/low-and-mid-rise-housing-policy