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April 26, 2026 — 5:00am
Within weeks of his election in March 2023, Premier Chris Minns announced a landmark land audit of state-owned sites.
To meet lofty targets under the National Housing Accord, the audit’s objective was to identify parcels of land that could be sold to private developers who, in turn, would build affordable housing so that the workers needed to keep this city running could live within its bounds.
Three years later, questions must be asked about why sites that were sold remain vacant, many without plans to be converted into much-needed homes.
As Max Maddison reports in today’s Sun-Herald, only a handful of the publicly owned properties sold in the past year have lodged development applications.
The vast majority of the sites were sold to developers or private buyers, which suggests that, instead of being a mechanism for bringing more homes to the suburbs, the big sell-off has led to land banking by the private sector.
The purpose of the land audit has shifted over time. Minns initially pledged that 30 per cent of homes to be built would be social, affordable and universal housing. By the June 2024 budget, when Labor announced a separate $6.6 billion social and public housing program, this was reframed to 21,000 “affordable and market homes”.
But it is concerning that there has been little urgency in developing the vast majority of the sites already sold.
The federal government is also looking at how Sydney’s publicly owned land might be better used, in the process aiming to balance the books.
It plans to sell off more than $3 billion worth of military landholdings, including Paddington’s Victoria Barracks, Drummoyne’s Spectacle Island and part of HMAS Penguin in Mosman. The proposed Victoria Barracks sale has prompted a particularly emotional response, as opponents express concern about losing a part of the nation’s military history.
The last major dispersal of Defence assets in this city was through the creation of the Harbour Trust in the 1990s, ultimately retaining the heritage of former Defence sites along Sydney Harbour, and keeping the land for public use.
It is not a foregone conclusion that other Defence sites will end up privately held, or developed without government input or controls. In February, the NSW government said it “always welcomes opportunities to deliver more well-located housing and open spaces” and planned to “engage constructively” with the federal government in this exercise. Meanwhile, the City of Sydney has commissioned concept plans for a mixed-use development at Victoria Barracks, including civic and commercial facilities, and housing for essential workers.
The progress of NSW’s divestment should serve as a cautionary tale. Handing valuable government assets to the private market – where high construction costs are stifling development – has left Sydney as a city with still too few homes, and a government with fewer resources to address the problem.
