The next five years will feature the biggest housing construction boom in Sydney's history, according to forecasts released by the state government.
The forecasts predict almost 185,000 new houses and apartments will be added to the city by 2021 – about 85 per cent more properties than were built in the previous five years.
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Sydney's population booms
Pressure on Sydney's already-stretched housing and transport needs are a "symptom of Sydney's success", says NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes.
Parramatta will be home to the largest increase in dwellings, with another 21,450 properties added to the council area, according to the forecasts by the Department of Planning and the Environment.
The next largest increases are in the City of Sydney council area, with 18,250 new dwellings; Blacktown, with 13,600 new properties; and Canterbury-Bankstown, with 12,200 new dwellings.
The Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, said the spread of the new dwellings meant the perennial Sydney problem of creating new properties only on the fringes of the city was finally being addressed.
"When you look at the top areas, it is Parramatta, it is the City of Sydney, it's Blacktown, and Blacktown includes some greenfield release, but also some infill areas," said Mr Stokes.
"We are getting the balance better," he said.
"Getting over the greenfield issue was probably the biggest thing that needed to be done, and these figures indicate that that's happening."
The Department's forecasts are based on development that is already under construction, developers either approved or being assessed, and land rezoned for residential purposes.
If the forecasts do come to fruition, the next five years will surpass a period between 1968 and 1973 – when apartment construction had been fuelled by the introduction of the strata title system – as the largest increase to Sydney's housing supply in its history.
The estimate of 184,300 new dwellings in the next five years follows the construction of 100,650 homes in the five years between 2011 and 2016. Between 2006 and 2011, about 69,650 new properties were added to Sydney.
Mr Stokes said the largest concentration of new buildings were in areas of extra infrastructure.
"Former governments drew lines on maps all the time, and rezoned land, and it didn't result in any extra yield because developers simply couldn't do it, because there weren't any roads or rail or sewerage pipes."
However the geographic spread of increased supply is far from even across the city. In places like Hunters Hill, Mosman or the Blue Mountains, minimal new homes will be built. Camden (11,800), Bayside (10,000), which incorporates Botany and Rockdale, the Hills (8350), and Cumberland (8850), which includes parts of the former Auburn, Parramatta and Holroyd Council, will also experience significant growth in the next five years.
The forecasts follow the Department's prediction that the population of Sydney would grow by 2.1 million people in the next two decades.
The expected population increase, and the resulting demand for new dwellings, was one reason nominated by Mr Stokes for the coming construction boom not to result in an over-supply.
But Mr Stokes said he would still like to eventually see a greater mix of housing types. The Minister has been trying to encourage greater use of terrace housing and other low-medium density housing as opposed to only stand-alone houses or apartments.
Areas in Sydney to be targeted for increasing housing supply will be a focus of draft district plans to be released next week by the Greater Sydney Commission. Councils will be required to incorporate the final versions of the Greater Sydney Commission's plans, to be completed by the end of next year, into local planning decisions.
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