We are being asked to accept over 45,000 new dwellings across the Inner West, largely high-rise apartments, as the answer to a housing shortage.
This means major change for Leichhardt, Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Ashfield, with Stage 2 of the Inner West Labor Council’s “Fairer Future” plan already underway. Add proposals along the Parramatta Road corridor and Bays West, and the scale of change becomes significant.
Before we reshape our suburbs at that scale, it is worth asking a simple question:
Are we making the most of the homes we already have?
A recent article by Richard Denniss, Director of The Australia Institute, suggests this may not just be a shortage of housing:
https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260317-the-fake-gas-and-housing-shortage-is-australias-real-crisis
Over the past 20 years:
- Population grew by 34%
- Dwellings increased by 39%
At the same time:
- More homes are being bought as investments
- Fewer are available to live in
- More people are renting for longer
- More homes are used for short-term stays
- More homes are sitting unoccupied
It is not just a supply issue. It is an access and utilisation issue.
There is also a broader reality. Housing policy is built on the expectation that prices will continue to rise.
So while increasing supply is presented as the solution, it is not necessarily designed to make housing cheaper.
Which raises a simple question:
If prices are expected to rise, how does building more high-cost housing improve affordability?
This matters for the Inner West.
We are talking about tens of thousands of new apartments, many high-rise and high-cost, often replacing smaller, more affordable homes.
That creates a very real risk:
We replace what people can afford today with what they cannot afford tomorrow.
Who is this housing actually for?
Because if we are:
- Building more, but not improving access
- Increasing supply, but not improving affordability
- Not making better use of the homes we already have
…then we are not solving the problem.
Before we rezone and redevelop residential streets, do we know:
- How many affordable homes are currently in the Inner West (as a benchmark)
- How many homes are sitting vacant?
- How much land is underused?
- What we could achieve by using what we already have better?
Because if we don’t answer these questions first, that risk becomes reality:
We replace what people can afford today with what they cannot afford tomorrow.
If we are not using what we already have…why are we rushing to build more?
So next time you hear that more supply will fix affordability, remember building more doesn’t automatically mean people can afford to live here.