The NSW Labor government is planning to build 18,300 new high-rise apartments in a leafy part of Sydney where most residents are Australian-born and vote Liberal.
Details of the proposed rezoning, which will cover a 113-hectare precinct around the Burwood North Metro Station in the suburbs of Concord, Burwood and Strathfield, were revealed this week, including plans for 3,000 more apartments than originally announced in August last year.
The largest cluster of towers, which will be allowed to reach 42 storeys and be 140 metres tall, will be located in the southern part of Concord, a low-density residential area where 64% of residents voted Liberal in the 2023 state election.
Concord is 63.9% Australian-born, with Italians the largest-foreign born group, and at the time of the 2021 Census only 16.5% of dwellings were flats or apartments. The low-rise suburb is in the state electorate of Drummoyne, which the Liberals won in 2023 with a 1.3% margin despite a 12.3% swing to Labor.
Neighbouring Burwood, where the bulk of remainder of the apartments will be built, is just 25.1% Australian-born with 48.3% of people nominating Chinese ancestry in the 2021 Census, and 67.5% of dwelling were flats or apartments.
The suburb is located in the seat of Strathfield, which was comfortably won by Labor with a margin of 13% at the last state election, although the polling booth inside the rezoned area had just a 5% margin, according to the latest available data.
The increase from 15,000 to 18,300 units is part of a state-wide trend under Premier Chris Minns’ Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) which has allowed developers to bypass local councils and have massive projects fast-tracked by state government planners.
The scheme has resulted in developers being able to revise previously rejected proposals to include thousands more units in taller buildings in dozens of sites across Sydney.
They include a development by construction giant Billbergia, which had a huge high-rise in the over-crowded suburb of Rhodes last year under the authority despite objections from locals, in nearby Concord West, which went from 698 apartment in 12-storey buildings to 1,300 dwellings in towers up to 38 storeys high.
Pollster Kos Samaras said after the announcement of Mr Minns’ housing plan in 2024 that the housing target of 375,000 new high-density homes would have the “positive, unintended consequence” of adding more Labor voters to Liberal seats, although the state government denied at the time that was its intention.
“Density has reshaped the political landscape in Melbourne, particularly in south-eastern parts of Melbourne. What used to be defined as safe Liberal seats have turned into Labor seats. [Mr Minns’] targets … will have a profound impact on the political landscape,” Mr Samaras told the AFR.
“Until now, the broken housing market in Sydney has been to the detriment to the Labor Party because it’s prevented the types that do vote for Labor and Greens to move further out, which basically created enclaves of significant wealth and homeownership that [vote Liberal].”
Labor Member for Strathfield Jason Yat-Sen Li said this week the Burwood North rezoning was “an exciting opportunity to shape the future of Burwood North”, and Planning Minister Paul Scully said the government was “balancing vibrancy, infrastructure delivery and housing growth”.
The proposal is on public exhibition on the NSW Planning portal until April 10.
Header image: Left, the rezoning proposal. Right, Mr Minns (NSW government).
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