The heated Sydney housing market will benefit from almost 200,000 new homes, as the NSW government announces plans to invest in housing infrastructure to tackle housing affordability.
Speaking outside a development in Sydney’s northwest over the weekend, NSW Premier Mike Baird announced that Tuesday's state budget will include a $400 million injection into the Housing Acceleration Fund to build more dwellings, the
Daily Telegraph reported.
“This record investment will help put the dream of home ownership within reach of more young families,” Baird said.
“One of the most important things we can do to improve housing affordability is to ¬increase housing supply.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, total residential building approvals in NSW declined 33% over April 2015.
When asked about abolishing stamp duty - which many property commentators blame for Sydney’s housing affordability problem - Baird was vague, saying that the NSW government was open to considering stamp duty reform in the long-term, but affirmed that the priority was to tackle affordability through increasing supply.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, stamp duty on conveyances accounted for 25% of the NSW government’s total tax revenues in 2013-14.
