Property Council NSW Executive Director Katie Stevenson said that despite four months of welcome scrutiny, the latest government council performance league table reveals just over half of NSW councils (54%) are meeting their residential development assessment processing targets.
"With reports today that Sydney councils are sitting on 8,500 unresolved development applications and requests for development certificates there's no more room for excuses.
"The official data tells the story – the latest ABS monthly figures for September showed total dwelling approvals in NSW fell 15 per cent on the previous month – from 3,425 in August to 2,918 in September - the worst monthly performance since January 2023.
"Penalties are pointless if you're not prepared to use them - the NSW Government has seen approval performance plummet across dozens of councils yet taken no action to use Performance Improvement Orders (PIO) introduced earlier this year.
"The Property Council NSW has made repeated calls for Government to give a 'red card' to underperforming NSW councils, and while the PIO approach has been adopted, it hasn't been used once," she said.
Ms Stevenson said that even when DAs make it into the housing pipeline they're getting held up.
"Recent KPMG data showed more than 12,000 homes in Sydney were approved yet stalled at the end of the last financial year -an increase of nearly 18% from the previous year," Ms Stevenson said.
"Construction costs and other financial pressures are making projects increasingly unfeasible.
"Families, workers, and businesses are bearing the brunt of these roadblocks, which are further compounding Sydney's housing affordability crisis.
"The end of the year is in sight which generally means a slowdown in activity until early next year - if the Minns Government means business when it comes to housing, we need to see action now," she said.
