New South Wales is set to shell out an additional $400m to transform land and make them ready for over 664,000 new housing units in the next 15 years.
 
NSW is also looking at spending another $19m to create a planning body to oversee the housing project for the state.
 
According to a report by the Australian Financial Review, the latest increase to the Housing Acceleration Fund comes on top of the $566.5m invested in the fund since its inception in 2012. This brings the total spent on land preparation close to a total $1bn.
 
NSW is currently leading Australia’s housing construction boom which is targeted to produce more than 200,000 new dwellings this financial year and the next. However, NSW needs to speed up the production of new homes after a decade of underinvestment, the report added.
 
NSW recorded 49,000 new housing starts in the 12 months to December last year, the highest since 2003.
 
"The Government is taking concerted action to address housing supply, and therefore housing affordability," Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian was quoted as saying. "With our surplus position, we have put an additional $400m in the Housing Acceleration Fund, the largest ever single contribution, to go directly towards the infrastructure required in growth areas and to bring housing to market as quickly as possible."
 
Moreover, Glenn Byres, Property Council of Australia NSW executive director, said he is hopeful that the state “continues to step up in the national tax reform debate and begin shifting away from inefficient taxes that hurt housing affordability and the economy”.
 

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