Predictable NIMBY opposition, but this is a needed change to boost density in NSW cities resulting in increased housing affordability and allowing more people to live without being tethered to a car.
Predictable NIMBY opposition, but this is a needed change to boost density in NSW cities resulting in increased housing affordability and allowing more people to live without being tethered to a car.
I don’t doubt that residents are organising in their perceived best interests whether you or I agree with them or not. That’s not what I mean by manufactured. I think the framing of the debate as an us (renters, homeless) vs them (home owners) or urban sprawl vs higher density is entirely artificial. Regardless of it’s origin I think that nimby is corporate developer language that isn’t helpful.
It should go without saying that there is a real housing crisis. But it wasn’t the residents of Balmain or Glebe or any other residential community that created this crisis. It’s entirely on the banks, investors, developers, construction giants and their pro-developer mates on councils and in parliaments. But they seem to be getting off scot-free in all of this. Not only scot-free but they’re about to make another massive windfall off this rezoning.
And I don’t think that those interested in continuing to profit of this crisis have any motivation to end it. That’s what I mean when I say manufactured.
I mean I get you, the developers themselves don’t really care about solving the crisis, they just want to make money. But increased housing supply is the only real politically viable solution, and unless we want even more sprawling, car dependent cities, then that requires higher density. So in this case, people who want affordable housing and developers that want to make a profit, have a shared goal.
Now if you were to argue that the government should instead build a massive amount of publicly owned high density apartments, terrace houses, duplexes, etc rather than handing it over to the private sector, than I’m all for it. But I really don’t see that happening any time soon, and that’s partly because a minority of people will protest to their local council that it’s ruining their community (and their property values).