Why Sydney must build more apartments in the CBD

“You won’t see the end of them because there’s still a number that are in the [planning] system, and people want that choice. They want the choice, and will make trade-offs within their own lives about transport and distances.
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“When you go into the south-west of Sydney, around Campbelltown and Wollondilly and places like that, there are still opportunities for people there … they may not end up working in areas where they have to come into the city.”
Scully’s remarks follow the results of a new survey, published on Tuesday, which found support for higher density housing in suburban areas is climbing among Sydneysiders, who are more likely to approve of ramped-up development in their own neighbourhoods than they were two years ago.
The Life in Sydney survey, conducted by Ipsos and the Committee for Sydney, shows 46 per cent of Sydney residents would back increased density in their suburb, compared to 39 per cent in 2023.
There was also a 10 per cent jump in support for intensifying residential development in Sydney’s CBD and in inner-city suburbs in the past two years. The report showed, however, 50 per cent of Sydneysiders thought apartments were inappropriate for families.
Scully said the shifting attitudes towards density, particularly the increased support for housing in respondents’ own suburbs, revealed in the report were encouraging.
“I think people are starting to recognise we can’t continue to do things the way we have in the last decade, with the same outcome,” he said.
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