The Greater Sydney Commission, established in last week’s NSW Budget, should help promote more suitable housing for retirees, such as low density apartment blocks and villas to help address the city’s real estate affordability issues. 

The NSW Government will invest $20.9 million over four years to launch the Greater Sydney Commission, which has been tasked with overseeing the delivery of new housing, infrastructure and services, across the metropolitan area.  To help meet its target of 664,000 dwellings in Greater Sydney by 2031, the NSW Government has allocated $400 million to support new housing supply in infill and greenfield areas, as well as $89.1 million to help cut council red tape.

The Greater Sydney Commission is an excellent initiative but it must find ways to deliver suitable housing to retirees still living in oversized family homes across the metropolitan area. Sydney requires more medium density housing and villas, where land prices make this a feasible alternative for developers. 

There’s been plenty of news about the massive growth in apartment developments across Sydney, but the majority of this stock is not suitable for retirees, who are already hampered by the prospect of paying stamp duty to downsize. 

If the commission can help encourage more Sydney empty-nesters to downsize out of bigger family homes, it will go some way towards helping to address the city’s affordability issues.  

I also urge the State Government to do more to promote the benefits of downsizing to a bigger population centre such as Newcastle, Bathurst, Wagga, Tamworth, Dubbo and Orange. These centres offer all the amenities and facilities that retirees have come to expect in the city, yet real estate prices are significantly more affordable.

In the St George and Sutherland Shire region, Ray Fadel, Principal of Raine & Horne Sans Souci, agrees that the explosion of high-rise apartment towers in his region is not really addressing the housing needs of empty-nesters. He says older Australians want to live in villas or three bedroom apartments in smaller blocks that have views and are within walking distance of shops and transport. There’s not much stock like that in his region apart from Cronulla, Ramsgate and Brighton. The majority of the new developments in the St George/Sutherland region offer two bedroom apartments, located in high-rise towers where owners must share the space with hundreds of other occupants. Even though they all have lift access, the high-rise towers are not for retirees in many cases.

On the North Shore, Hugh Macfarlan, Principal of Raine & Horne Chatswood/Willoughby, says the cost of land generally prohibits the development of villas. Stamp duty is already a problem and this is keeping many older North Shore residents in bigger homes, so it would be great to see the new Greater Sydney Commission consider ways to address housing affordability issues.

Retirees attending open for inspections in the Inner West are expressing a preference for larger apartments, according to Kip Laverack, Project Sales Consultant at Raine & Horne Projects, who says, "If we had more three bedroom apartments, we’d sell them, as long as the price is right for downsizers and the developers.”