Other forms of housing

The annual Sydney housing supply forecast does not explicitly forecast or include the following dwelling types:

• secondary dwellings
• boarding houses
• student accommodation
• group homes
• seniors living developments, including retirement villages, hostels and aged-care facilities
• housing for people with a disability
• manufactured housing estates.

The department provides key data on some of these other forms of housing in recognition of their role in helping meet the needs of Sydney’s diverse and growing population.

Secondary dwellings

Secondary dwellings and dual occupancies refer to lots that have added a second dwelling. This sort of development is relevant to the overall housing supply in Sydney and is a type of housing that can increase density in established areas. Figure 3 shows the key differences between dual occupancies and secondary dwellings.

Figure 3. The difference between dual occupancies and secondary dwellings.

View a larger version of the dual occupancies and secondary dwellings comparison

The main differences between the two are:

• for a dual occupancy, the dwellings can be equal in size; for secondary dwellings, the secondary dwelling must be smaller (secondary) to the main dwelling
• a dual occupancy can be subdivided or strata-titled and can therefore have individual owners; a secondary dwelling cannot be subdivided from the land on which the primary dwelling stands.

Although the department's forecasting methodology does not cover secondary dwellings, it may cover dual occupancies both in the development pipeline (as development consents) and in completed new homes (as separate water connections with Sydney Water, our proxy for dwelling completions).

Secondary dwelling approvals

The best source of information on secondary dwellings is the Local Performance Development Monitor. The department has collected secondary dwelling approvals data by local government area (LGA) from FY2006–07 to FY2019–20. Approvals include development applications and complying development certificates.

The map in Figure 4 shows the total number of secondary dwelling approvals by LGA for FY2019–20. Data for previous years be found on the Local Performance Development Monitor.

Figure 4. Number of secondary dwelling approvals by LGA for FY2019–20.

Other dwellings

Key points

• The pipeline of other forms of housing includes seniors housing, group homes, housing for people with a disability and boarding houses (which include student accommodation).
• Although all these projects may not be built, this pipeline provides a sense of the development that will service housing needs outside traditional housing markets (for example, private rental and ownership of units and houses).
• The information is aggregated for Greater Sydney and looks at additional beds, bedrooms and units as reported by a project’s planning documents.
• These other housing types may be a notable form of potential supply for some LGAs.

We compiled a pipeline of other forms of housing, excluding secondary dwellings and manufactured home estates, using CoreLogic's Cordell Connect Australia Project database. The pipeline refers to:

• development applications lodged for assessment with a consent authority
• development applications approved but not yet commenced
• developments under construction.

The purpose was to identify and track the scope and breadth of ‘other dwelling’ developments that will contribute to the diversity of Sydney’s future housing supply. As at June 2021, based on planning information (projects in the system) there was potential across Sydney for:

Note that we have rounded totals to the nearest 10.

Note: you cannot directly compare the two products because the Sydney housing supply forecast counts dwellings and the other forms of housing pipeline counts bedrooms/units/beds.

2021 other dwellings pipeline by type

The chart in Figure 5 shows the ‘other dwellings’ pipeline broken down to sub-categories of units, bedrooms and beds. We have also broken down each LGA to show how many of each accommodation type are in the pipeline for the LGA.

Figure 5. 'Other dwellings' pipeline by type

Factors that drive demand for other forms of housing in an LGA include:

• proximity to universities and other higher education institutions
• proximity to large employers, such as hospitals
• an older population and existing facilities for seniors
• comparatively high costs and lower availability of the traditional private rental market.

Generally, independent seniors housing is reported as the number of units, boarding houses (including student accommodation) as the number of bedrooms and beds and aged-care facilities as the number of beds.