System is 'still too slow, too expensive and too unpredictable'
The Property Council of Australia has acknowledged a modest improvement in New South Wales dwelling approvals for March 2025 but warned the state remains well behind schedule in meeting its housing targets.
According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, total national dwelling approvals fell 8.8% month on month to 15,220 in seasonally adjusted terms.
NSW, however, saw the greatest gain at 19.6%, with Queensland tagging along at 5.8%. All other state posted declines, with Tasmania the bottom of the pile at a 42.2% decline.
On an annualised basis, total dwellings increased by 13.4% across the country.
“It’s encouraging to see approvals lift (in NSW), but this is still well below the 6,250 homes we need to be approving on average each month of the five-year National Housing Accord,” said Property Council NSW executive director Katie Stevenson (pictured).
The Council noted that in the first quarter of 2025, just 13,503 homes were approved in NSW. This rate puts the state on track to fall more than 20,000 homes short of its annual target.
The Labor government made its 1.2-million-homes-in-five-years strategy a cornerstone policy heading into the last election, but the party has consistently failed to meet its own targets.
“We’ve seen encouraging reform from the government, but this is a long game – and the system is still too slow, too expensive and too unpredictable for many projects to get off the ground,” Stevenson said.
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NSW also faces downward trends in construction activity. Recent figures show 45,552 homes were delivered in 2024, a decline from the previous year. Housing starts also fell by nearly 10%, signalling continued pressure on the supply pipeline.
Budget hopes
Stevenson said the upcoming state budget must address the structural issues limiting housing delivery. “We’re calling for permanent fast-track pathways for large-scale housing projects, more funding to support timely development assessments, and continued investment in local infrastructure to unlock development-ready land,” she said.
“Unless we shift from announcements to delivery – and make housing feasible again – NSW will keep falling short of its housing goals.”
