28 February 2025
Our Perspective
The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) represents the professionals who shape projects and make decisions every day on how we can make our cities better.
PIA supports more housing in the right place, of the right type, at the right time – supported by infrastructure. We want homes for the next generation.
PIA has sought changes to planning controls to increase housing choices and density, based on an objective to create great communities for future residents most cost-effectively.
While many of the Low and Mid-Rise housing (LMRH) reforms could help – executing them all at once may not maintain amenity and living standards nor offer the best return on infrastructure investment.
This is why PIA proposes changes to the sequence of introduction based on an integrated strategy and following close examination of each precinct using masterplans. This work should be done in collaboration with Councils and other stakeholders.
What are the LMRH changes?
The NSW Government recently released Stage 2 of the Low and Mid-Rise housing changes. These allow medium density housing types, from terraces to apartments, to be approved within 800m of 171 selected centres and transport hubs in NSW metropolitan areas.
Within the 171 catchments, non-refusal standards contained in the Housing SEPP supersede local controls and prevent more onerous standards being applied for those matters. Building height limits of 22m (six storeys) apply within 400m catchments (or 24m for shop-top housing), and 17.5m (four storeys) from 400-800m.
PIA has provided a broader description of the changes and our engagement with the LMRH policy here.
What does PIA support?
PIA supports the expansion of housing density for the ‘missing middle’ with more choice of townhouses, terraces and apartments that meet the needs of a changing population. These should be near those centres most suited for growth – planned and designed with access to amenities, jobs, infrastructure, transport and affordable housing. Achieving this requires more than upzoning circles of land.
This is why PIA has advocated masterplanning for the needs of each precinct to tailor substantial growth in the right places and in sequence, to enable infrastructure and services to sustain quality of life. This can be achieved while maintaining more than enough capacity for surges in housing demand.
PIA has successfully advocated for significant changes since exhibition. The policy will only apply to residential-zoned land, not the core of town centres which are more suited to higher densities and contain valuable employment land. PIA also successfully advocated that the policy not change the shape and specific location of zones without more detailed precinct masterplanning.
PIA also supported exclusions to flood or bushfire-prone land, sites containing heritage items, and in Transport Oriented Development (TOD) areas, with which there is significant overlap.
However, PIA is concerned that there has not been more clarity on affordable housing contributions. Housing prices will rise as redevelopment opportunities emerge and lower cost homes will be displaced in many centres. PIA and our partners support mandatory inclusionary zoning for affordable housing in perpetuity in LMRH areas, noting the temporary bonus floorspace provisions will not be enough. Clearly development viability is a factor but the extent of LMRH upzoning is vast.
What else is PIA proposing?
PIA understands that homes are not built by changes to zones and development controls, but that they are essential to enable the best development. We appreciate that the viability of development will change over time and alongside targeted public investment in better infrastructure and services.
A strategic plan for land use and infrastructure across Greater Sydney and other metropolitan areas is sorely needed to knit housing together with the other land uses and infrastructure which underpin our cities’ dynamism and long-term success.
At the precinct scale, we can do better than thinking of local places simply as LMRH areas within upzoned circles. Places all have their own physical, social and economic stories. Good local planning seeks to understand the characteristics of place, and then to act accordingly in response to strategic aims like making space for more different types and tenures of housing. We support councils progressing this work and urge State agencies to collaborate according to strategic plan priorities.
There is also a concern that LMRH changes are being applied all at once, instead of in a sequence which allows focused infrastructure investment where medium density development is already viable. This ignores non-planning factors, such as consumer preferences and macroeconomic conditions, which determine where development is financially feasible, and the rate at which it is delivered.
PIA will continue to support policy which seeks to improve housing choice and promote sustainable urban growth. We will continue to stress the importance of policy finesse at both strategic and precinct scales to deliver more of the right housing in the right place.
This is why PIA recommends:
- The LMRH Stage 2 controls be used to reinforce an adopted spatial strategy for the regions they apply.
- The LMRH Stage 2 controls be modified to support the more detailed work of current or scheduled precinct masterplanning work by Councils
- The introduction of LMRH controls in centres be not all once – but sequenced according to an integrated regional land use and infrastructure plan(s).
- Mandatory affordable housing contributions regime be announced in a form comparable to TOD SEPP precincts - and support the application of existing council schemes.
- That the LMRH changes be supported by measures that address public investment in infrastructure, services, social housing and residential amenity.
- Clearer guidance on the weight given to local controls when assessing LMRH applications, such as in heritage conservation areas, to ensure standards are upheld.
- PIA initiatives for streamlined development assessment of lower impact housing be worked up and introduced in collaboration with stakeholders.