A Gladys Berejiklian-led NSW government could do better than its predecessor at managing the state's growing infrastructure and property needs, the industry says.
Treasurer Ms Berejiklian, the frontrunner to replace Mike Baird at a Liberal Party meeting on Monday, is a former transport and infrastructure minister. She and running mate Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet would do well to oversee Sydney's transport and housing developments, said Tim Horton, head of the NSW Architects Registration Board, and a former Commissioner for Integrated Design in SA.
"That gives them arguably a stronger background in the stuff that shapes the city than the outgoing leadership," Mr Horton said.
NSW is building more homes than anywhere else. The country's largest city will grow from 4.7 million people last year to an expected 6.4 million by 2036 and infrastructure projects aimed to accommodate this expansion include the $9.6 billion Sydney Metro rail, $16.8 billion Westconnex road project and the $2.1 billion light rail.
The Property Council of Australia said the new leadership would have to define the next round of transport infrastructure projects - particularly those underpinning the planned Western Sydney Airport - and to implement existing ones such as Sydney Metro rail.
"Baird definitely made his mark in infrastructure," said Cheryl Thomas, the Property Council's NSW deputy executive director. "Now it is up to the new people around the table to finish what was already announced and make their mark in terms of what's next."
The government should also speed up planning changes that would make it easier to develop terrace housing and offer residential developers exemptions to foreign buyer residential property surcharges, she said.
The planned "missing middle" reforms, which would allow councils to opt in or out of a fast-track approvals scheme for medium-density housing should be made mandatory, Ms Thomas said.
"At the moment it's more of nip-tuck than an actual reform," she said.
Sydney councillor and architect Philip Thalis said Ms Berejiklian deserved praise for building long-overdue essential infrastructure such as the CBD light rail, but was critical of her and Mr Perrottet's support for privatisation to fund infrastructure spending.
"They'll be more of the same," he said.
Ms Thomas said the new leadership should continue the planned NSW council amalgamations, despite calls from NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro last week to halt them.
She also said she hoped Rob Stokes would continue as planning minister.
Mr Horton said Ms Berejiklian had already shown an "elegant pragmatism" as transport minister when she implemented the Opal Card ticketing system, which has proven less problematic than Melbourne's much-maligned Myki card.
"She was able to co-ordinate all the work of her department from the major transport planning through to literally the gates that opened on the platform and the cards that had to work across a whole series of contracts that were already in place, staffing that needed to be reworked, signage that needed to be rolled out in a completely different way and ordering the trains," he said.
