New sites for houses as no-grounds eviction ban passes

Ongoing efforts to find more housing development sites have been welcomed by the property industry amid changes for tenants and landlords in Australia's most expensive rental market.

The NSW government announced more sites to support new development as part of its ongoing land audit on Thursday.

Property Council NSW deputy executive director Anita Hugo said the identification of locations and partnership with the private sector to develop them was an important step in addressing the housing crisis.

"Only by working together can we have a chance of meeting our Housing Accord target to deliver more than 377,000 new homes by 2029," she said.

Construction is also due to begin within weeks on 194 social homes across the state.

The 16 sites span NSW and include projects to turn sets of stand-alone houses into multi-level dwellings.

"It's a clear expectation that publicly owned sites should be developed in a way that supports those in need and industry is ready to be part of the solution," Ms Hugo said.

Meanwhile, a long-awaited ban on landlords evicting tenants for no reason passed state parliament on Thursday night along with other changes hoped to rebalance the nation's most expensive rental market.

However, advocates say more needs to be done.

More than 2.2 million tenants have been waiting for the overhaul after Labor and the coalition went into the 2023 state election promising to ban no-grounds evictions.

NSW Tenants' Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said the threat of eviction made tenants hesitant to ask for repairs or negotiate rent hikes.

"This is the single most significant change we can make to residential tenancies law, as without protection from unfair eviction in place we can't rely on other parts of the law to function properly," he said.

Homelessness NSW chief executive Dominique Rowe said the changes should relieve some pressure on homelessness services, which more than 68,000 people turned to for help every year.

"One of the main causes of homelessness is eviction from private rentals, so anything we can do to reduce evictions will keep people in housing and take pressure off our homelessness services," she said.

However, more social housing needs to be built, with 58,000 on waitlists for up to five years.

Housing Minister Rose Jackson said the changes to tenancies were straightforward and reasonable.

"There are millions of renters in our state ... for those millions of people they have a reasonable expectation the rental market will provide them with safe and secure housing," she said.

Opponents to the bill expressed concerns it made investment less attractive and would not help increase housing supply.

The passage of the tenancy changes followed the announcement of 14 more state-owned sites identified for development on Thursday.

One proposal would redevelop land adjacent to the heritage-listed Broadmeadow Locomotive Depot in Newcastle into 208 homes.

Subdivision of the site was recommended for approval by the council in March.

Some 28 sites, capable of providing more than 3000 homes, had been announced under the land audit, Lands Minister Steve Kamper said.

The audit, which began in April 2023, has been criticised by the opposition for so far failing to build a single home.

NEW LAND AUDIT SITES

Broadmeadow - 208 dwellings estimated

Orange - 15

Morisset - 11

Rouse Hill (three sites) - 10 + 691 + 176

North Sydney - 90

Box Hill - 71

Edmondson Park - 47

Chippendale - 21

Fairfield - 24

Riverstone - 11

Stanmore - 5

Earlwood - 3