Parking Requirements Will Make Boarding Houses Unviable

The proposed changes to the NSW Affordable Rental Housing SEPP to increase car parking requirements will make boarding houses unviable, says the Urban Taskforce.

“The whole point of the Affordable Rental Housing State Environmental Planning Policy is to provide housing at low rentals in areas close to transport nodes,” says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson. 

“It is vital that the construction costs of these projects is kept low to make the rooms affordable so the requirement has been for 0.2 car parking spaces per unit in accessible areas. The proposed change will lift this to 0.5 spaces per room for accessible locations which will either require extensive basement levels or use valuable land.”

“With Sydney housing being amongst the most expensive in the world when related to household incomes, it is essential that government’s do all they can to support affordable housing. Under the proposed changes a 40 room boarding house located close to a railway station would have to provide 20 basement car parking spaces compared to the current requirement of 8. At a cost of $70,000 a space the extra 12 car parking spaces would add $840,000 to the cost of the boarding house thus making it unviable.”

“The NSW Government should be encouraging affordable boarding house rooms close to transport nodes and these should have minimal car parking requirements. The change of policy will only have the effect of driving boarding houses onto cheaper land away from public transport in amongst suburban housing.”

“The Urban Taskforce calls on the NSW Government to help with housing affordability and to help decongest our roads by keeping a very low car parking requirement for boarding houses.""