This forecast data covers:

• Greater Sydney
• Greater Sydney Districts, Local Government Area and Suburb

• Forecast increment: Annually
• Forecast period: 20 years
• Forecast coverage: 2020 to 2040

Forecast: an estimate of the number of new houses or dwellings that are likely to be built in the future.

Greater Sydney: the Sydney Statistical Division (this excludes the Central Coast and Wollongong local government areas).

Greater Sydney Districts: five key planning areas of Greater Sydney, defined by the Greater Sydney Commission.

Zoning and planning controls: legislative framework for regulating land use and development, including the location, density, height and type of new residential development.

• The forecast is an estimate of the number of new dwellings that could be built under current zoning and planning controls, current programs and initiatives and particular market conditions. It reflects current trends in residential construction and approval activity.
• The central base case scenario represents the most likely outcome based on market conditions and demand factors at the time of preparing the forecast in October 2020. The high growth and low growth scenarios explore the impacts of varying market conditions. See the detailed description of the methodology for the scenarios.
• The forecast is not an indicator of housing demand.
• The 2020 forecast differs from previous forecasts because it was released as three scenarios and down to a suburb level.
• A key assumption for the 2020 forecast is that although population growth may slow in the short term, underlying demand for and market take-up of housing in Greater Sydney will continue.
• The Sydney housing supply forecast applies generally to private dwellings that are detached houses, medium-density development (townhouses, terraces and villas) and apartments. It does not explicitly forecast, or include in the forecast, the following dwelling types: secondary dwellings, boarding houses, student accommodation, group homes, seniors living developments (including retirement villages, hostels and aged care facilities), and manufactured housing estates.

Visit available dashboards:

• Greater Sydney
• Illawarra-Shoalhaven
• Greater Newcastle (PDF, 3.6 MB)

This dashboard covers:

• Greater Metropolitan Sydney Local Government Areas
• Illawarra-Shoalhaven Region Local Government Areas
• Greater Newcastle Region Local Government Areas

See usage notes for a complete list of LGAs comprising each area.

Illawarra Shoalhaven

• Approvals from: 1998-99
• Approvals to: Ongoing 
• Approvals frequency: Financial Year
• Completions from:
  • 1998-99 (Kiama, Shellharbour and Wollongong LGAs)
  • 2014-15 (Shoalhaven LGA)
• Completions to: Ongoing
• Completions frequency: Financial Year

Newcastle

• Approvals from: 2007-08
• Approvals to: 2018-19
• Approvals frequency: Financial Year
• Completions from: 2014-14
• Completions to: 2018-19
• Completions frequency: Financial Year

Greater Metropolitan Sydney

• Approvals from:1991-92
• Approvals to:Ongoing
• Approvals frequency: Financial Year
• Completions from:1998-99
• Completions to: Ongoing
• Completions frequency: Financial Year

Greenfield forecast: an estimate of the number of new houses or dwellings that are likely to be built in the future. It is produced by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and is based on data provided by developers of greenfield sites.

Dwelling approvals: refers to a residential development that has received the final approval to construct. For NSW, this means a dwelling has obtained a Construction Certificate (CC) or Complying Development Certificate (CDC).

Dwelling completions: measured on a net basis, it is the difference between the number of completed dwellings compared to the existing stock, adjusted for demolitions.

Dwellings: defined by the ABS as a “self-contained suite of rooms, including cooking and bathing facilities, intended for long-term residential use”. This excludes rooms within buildings offering institution care (e.g. hospitals) or temporary accommodation (e.g. motels, hostels and holiday apartments).

Density: this report aggregates dwellings by density, defined as:

• Low density: houses (includes separate, kit and transportable houses).
• Medium density: semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses, as well as flats, units, or apartments in four or more storey blocks.
• High density: flats units or apartment in four or more storey blocks.
• Other: alterations and additions, conversions and other dwellings not elsewhere classified (e.g. shop top housing).
• Note: when comparing Approvals with Completions data, houses are classified as detached and all other dwellings as multi-unit.

Greenfield: ‘raw’ land that is not used (or initially zoned) for urban purposes but identified for future urban development.

Greenfield development: the delivery of new housing in greenfield land.

Release areas: greenfield development sites released for residential development

Infill: Land previously used for urban purposes including residential, industrial, open space or business uses.

Infill development: refers to the development, intensification or re‑use of land for residential purposes.

Rental vacancy rate: the number of vacant rental properties divided by the total number of rental properties expressed as a percentage.

• The forecast is an estimate of the number of new dwellings and is based on data provided by developers of greenfield sites.

• Dwelling approvals are not necessarily a reflection of future dwelling completions as the approved projects may not proceed to construction.
• Dwelling approvals are based on ABS data on complying development certificates and construction certificates – which is the last major planning approval a project requires before it can be built.

• These figures primarily capture private dwellings. Other forms of housing, including secondary dwellings, boarding houses and seniors housing, are inconsistently identified
• The Greater Metropolitan Sydney area is comprised of the following 33 LGAs: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, Canada Bay, Canterbury‑Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Liverpool, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Parramatta, Penrith, Randwick, Ryde, Strathfield, Sutherland Shire, Sydney, The Hills Shire, Waverley, Willoughby, Woollahra, Blue Mountains and Wollondilly.
• The Greater Newcastle region is comprised of the following 5 LGAs: Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Newcastle and Port Stephens.
• The Illawarra-Shoalhaven region is comprised of the following 4 LGAs: Kiama, Shoalhaven, Shellharbour and Wollongong.

Dwelling approvals: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Dwelling completions:

• Private dwelling connections from Sydney Water (Greater Metropolitan Sydney’s 33 LGAs plus the 3 Illawarra-Shoalhaven region LGAs of Kiama, Shellharbour and Wollongong of the)
• Occupation certificates from Shoalhaven Council
• Private dwelling connections from Hunter Water (for the 5 LGAs of the Greater Newcastle region)

Greenfield forecast: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and is based on data provided by developers of greenfield sites.

Population: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Population projections: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Market Trends: includes rental vacancy rate, median sales price (and change), median asking rent (and change). This information is sourced and then aggregated to a district level. Please contact CoreLogic and SQM for raw data.

• Greater Sydney, September 2021
• Illawarra-Shoalhaven, April 2021
• Newcastle, February 2020

Access the Fair Trading public register data.

No visualisation available.

This dataset covers:

• All NSW: Unit record data by address
• Allows users to aggregate to their preferred geography (e.g. LGA, suburb).

• From: 2013
• To: Ongoing
• Frequency: Quarterly

Key terms

Boarding house: a type of residential rental accommodation provided for a fee. Usually a resident only has a right to occupy a room and may share other facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom. Boarding houses often provide a form of low–cost rental accommodation for a wide range of tenants. Boarding houses can be leased under occupancy agreements or through a residential agreement. They must be registered if they accommodate five or more residents (general) or accommodate two or more residents with additional needs (assisted).

General boarding house; has five or more paying residents. General boarding houses do not include hotels, motels, backpackers’ hostels, aged care homes or other types of premises excluded by the Boarding Houses Act 2012.

Assisted boarding house; accommodates 2 or more persons with additional needs. A person with additional needs has a disability such as an age–related frailty; a mental illness and/or an intellectual, psychiatric, sensory or physical disability, and needs support or supervision with daily tasks and personal care such as showering, preparing meals or managing medication.

Usage notes

• This dataset should be used as a broad indicator of the overall number (stock) of boarding houses in an area.
• This dataset should not be used as an indicator of the supply of new boarding houses. The dataset is frequently revised to reflect new boarding houses as they are identified, however these additions do not necessarily indicate newly built boarding houses. There may be a lag between completing the construction/conversion to a boarding house, the occupation of the boarding house, and the boarding house being registered with Fair Trading.
  • Additionally, the Boarding Houses Act 2012 commenced on 1 January 2013, and proprietors of registrable boarding houses were required to register with Fair Trading even if they were already registered with other agencies. Years 2013 and 2014 may appear to indicate a high volume of new boarding house registrations, however this is incorrect.

• The Boarding Houses Act 2012 sets the legal requirement for operators of two types of boarding houses to register their boarding house with NSW Fair Trading, and provides for a central register of ‘registrable’ boarding houses. Proprietors of registrable boarding houses to register with Fair Trading within 28 days of commencing operations.
• The public registers are only as accurate as the information provided by the proprietors and manual inputs from councils. Information may be incomplete and out of date.
• If a boarding house is operating without registration it is not captured in this dataset (registering on the Boarding House Register is a legal obligation).
• The Department of Fair Trading also provides a near time searchable register of boarding houses. It is not available to download.
• The Boarding House Act 2012 is currently under review. In August 2020, a report on the Review of the Boarding Houses Act 2012 was released following a discussion paper and public consultation. It detailed several recommendations, including changes to the register. This means the register is likely to change in the future.

Source

NSW Department of Fair Trading.

Last updated

This information was last updated in April 2021.

Download the Median Weekly Rent data

This report covers:

• LGA

• From: 2011
• To: Ongoing
• Frequency: Quarterly

Total Bonds: live bonds held at the last date of the quarter.

Strata title properties: usually include town houses, terraces/villas, flats/units (multi-unit dwellings).

Non-strata title properties: usually refer to a separate house.

• Median weekly rent can be filtered by dwellings type (e.g. house, flat) and/or number of bedrooms. Median sales price can be filtered by strata or non-strata. For confidentiality;
  • rents in any geographical area where the number of new bonds is 10 or less are not reported
  • sale prices in any geographical area where the number of sales is 10 or less are not reported
• Statistics calculated from sample sizes between 10 and 30 are shown by an ‘s’ in the relevant table.These data should be treated with caution, particularly when assessing quarterly and annual changes
• The total number of rental bonds held does not equal the total number of rental properties. This is because at any given time some properties are vacant and there are cases where bonds are not required by a landlord from their tenant (e.g. informal lettings).
• Individual sales are allocated into time periods according to their contract date. Generally, the vendor and purchaser agree on the sale price on or before the contract date. In many instances there is a considerable time lapse between the contract and transfer dates. Accordingly, in assigning a time period to each property sale, the contract date is considered to be more relevant for market price analyses than the transfer date.
• The sales data is reported three months after the end of the reference quarter when on average about 80% of the contracted sales have been notified.
• A variety of factors create anomalies in the sale price attributed to particular properties.To ensure that the statistics reflect the market price of a typical residential dwelling the lower and upper 5% of sale prices for each LGA have been excluded.
• New procedures have been introduced in the production of Rent and Sales tables from September 2017. This has produced a break in the rent series and comparisons with tables from old procedures (any reports prior to September 2017) may not be valid.

Sales statistics: derived from information provided on the ‘Notice of Sale or Transfer of Land’ form that is lodged with Land and Property Information NSW.

Rental statistics: derived from information provided on the rental bond lodgement form that is lodged with Renting & Strata Services Branch (RSSB) of the Office of Fair Trading.