Sydney Scrambles To Build More Homes As Housing Prices Soar

Options For Land Being Considered Include Race Course And Former Olympics Site

- Jonathan Pearlman

SYDNEY - Australia's most populous and least affordable city, Sydney, has a problem: It desperately needs more housing but is struggling to find a large parcel of empty land on which to build it.

The city of 5.6 million people has a growing population and spiralling property and rental prices that have made it one of the world's least affordable cities.

But the authorities want to end the urban expansion into undeveloped or greenfield sites in the outer fringes, which has resulted in remote suburbs that are as far as 80km from the city centre and that often lack adequate services.

Instead, local and state governments have been looking for large, open or convertible spaces within existing urban areas.

Like Singapore, which will develop new housing precincts at Bukit Timah Turf City and the former Keppel Golf Course, Sydney planners have been on the lookout for available parcels that could be redeveloped. Turf City is set to have 15,000 to 20,000 public and private homes over the next 20 to 30 years, while the Keppel site will have about 9,000 homes.

But the authorities in Sydney, capital of New South Wales state, are struggling to find similar sites.

The New South Wales government proposed converting a racecourse, called Rosehill Gardens, into a "mini-city" of 25,000 new homes and a train station. The 140-year-old racecourse spans 57ha of prime real estate, about 25km west of the city centre.