Phillip Balding, from Greater Gong and Haven, says there’s one problem with state government development reforms – they don’t go far enough. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
More and higher town centre apartment buildings are the solution to Wollongong’s housing crisis, advocate Phillip Balding believes.
Phillip, who founded the Greater Gong and Haven urbanism group in early 2024, said he welcomed recent changes to development legislation.
Brought in by the NSW Government, new policies allow developers to sidestep council opposition and height limits if at least 10 per cent of a build is designated as affordable housing.
Phillip said the moves didn’t go far enough.
“Victoria is doing much better than us,” he said.
“They’ve selected 60 sites to up-zone, far more than we have, and they’ve included wealthier areas where the NSW Government has avoided them.
“They’ve gone to 20 stories and we’re still at six, which isn’t good enough in inner-city areas.
“Instead, we’ve approved swathes of townhouses that are not in walking distance from the city or public transport, and that will add traffic.
“You don’t want to smother a suburb in townhouses, you want to go taller near the centre, at train stations and by the beach – places people want to live.”
“Affordable housing” is not housing stock available for purchase at a price median income earners can afford.
It’s rental stock, separate to social housing, available to very low- or moderate-income earners at a discount to the market rent for a comparable property in the area it is in, thanks to the support of housing organisations or the government.
For example, if a new-build two-bedroom apartment in Wollongong is usually rented for $700 per week, its affordable counterpart would be available for $630 per week.
This might not be enough to make it practically affordable for a family in Wollongong, but Phillip said it could make other housing across the region more affordable.
“New housing is always going to be expensive, and ‘affordable’ is a disingenuous label,” he said.
“But the new housing frees up older stock as people move into them, and that’s what becomes more affordable.
“If the rental vacancy rate is below three per cent rents go above CPI, so you need a high vacancy rate for homes to be affordable.
“Housing is 37 per cent more expensive in Wollongong than in Brisbane, but our wages are 20 per cent lower.
“Old red brick units have gone up $200 per week in rent over the past few years, and that shouldn’t have happened. We need more homes.”
Phillip said 2019 legislation that cracked down on dodgy building practices would protect Wollongong from large, shoddy builds that have gone up in the past.
He also said as more apartments were built, a greater number of them would be three-bedroom or larger.
“In Chatswood, where they’ve been building apartments for a long time, the most recent towers were made up of more than 50 per cent three-bedroom or greater units,” he said.
“People don’t want to live out at West Dapto, but if you rezone Thirroul to allow more apartments, they’ll get built.”
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