Urban Infrastructure Housing

Unlocking public land for affordable housing

Urban Infrastructure Housing

Sydney is one of the least affordable housing markets in the world. We need to start thinking more creatively about the utilisation of public land if we are going to effectively provide more affordable housing.

In Sydney the land value of housing is approximately 35% of its cost. At the same time, 2% of the City of Sydney LGA is utilised for urban infrastructure.
Developing housing within air rights over this urban infrastructure would eliminate the land cost. By eliminating this component, we could deliver much needed affordable housing located near public transport.

We calculated that 103,100sqm of urban infrastructure land would be available for development. By allowing a 20% FSR incentive for housing, over 6,000 units could be developed, with a minimum of 2,000 units (or 35%) earmarked as affordable housing.

Our solution considers development, unit capacity, and design and construction models that would make the delivery of this affordable housing possible:

Under a Public/Private Partnership agreement, the government could contribute long term air rights over the existing infrastructure in return for a minimum of 35% of affordable housing
Air rights co-ownership would preserve public ownership of the infrastructure while simultaneously generating affordable housing
A Build To Rent model would allow developers to manage both market rate and affordable housing
Prefabricated units and modular construction techniques would minimise disruption to the infrastructure and allow for future flexibility

This concept is replicable across any public infrastructure land and is scalable to the size of the site.

As a pilot project, we propose the City of Sydney’s Goulburn Street carpark. Its current use – a carpark over heavy rail – already demonstrates how buildings can utilise air rights over public infrastructure. Using prefabricated mass timber housing modules, a carpark for 750 cars could be replaced by a 460 unit Build To Rent tower with a minimum of 160 affordable apartments.

Reimagining this site as a high quality Build To Rent project with affordable apartments clearly demonstrates how Sydney could provide more housing and reduce cars in the CBD, two goals essential to achieving sustainable urban density.