The Property Observer reports that Anthony Roberts, Minister for Housing and Planning, has announced housing completions have reached a record high, with 34,121 houses completed in metropolitan Sydney. This indicates a continuous swing to urban living locations close to jobs and transport nodes.
The high completion numbers come from planning approvals that were defined two years ago, but current approval numbers for Sydney have dropped. In September 2016 there were 57,723 approvals, but these dropped by 3,000 to 54,722 in December 2016. The January 2017 figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics support this downward trend.
Despite the record high 34,000 completions, the article notes that this figure is still below the average needed over the next 20 years according to the Department of Planning. Sydney will need over 40,000 new homes annually to balance previous lean years.
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