Explanatory notes

• Dwellings are defined by the ABS as "a self-contained suite of rooms, including cooking and bathing facilities, intended for long-term residential use". This excludes rooms within buildings offering institutional care (e.g. hospitals) or temporary accommodation (e.g. motels, hostels and holiday apartments). In the context of this dashboard and for presentation purposes only, we have aggregated dwellings into density categories:
  • Low Density
    Houses (includes separate, kit, and transportable houses)
  • Medium Density
    Semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses
    Flats, units or apartments (in one, two, or three storey blocks)
  • High Density
    Flats, units or apartments (in four or more storey blocks)
  • Others
    Alterations and additions to existing dwellings that lead to the creation of new dwellings (e.g. converting a manor house into multiple dwellings)
    
    Conversions of non-residential buildings into residential dwellings (e.g. warehouse conversions)
    
    Other dwellings not elsewhere classified, usually small-scale mixed residential and non-residential buildings where the primary purpose of the building is non-residential (e.g. Small-scale shop-top housing, such as a fish and chip shop with a small flat above
• Dwelling Approvals refers to a residential development that has received the final approval to begin construction. For NSW, this means a dwelling has obtained a Construction Certificate (CC) or Complying Development Certificate (CDC).
• Dwelling completions are a count of newly completed dwellings, and are measured on a net basis in this dataset. Net dwelling completions is a count of newly completed dwellings that is adjusted for demolitions. For example, a two-unit development that demolishes one existing dwelling is counted as one net dwelling completion. A knock-down rebuild would not be counted in this dataset as there has been no addition to dwelling stock. They are inferred from water connection billing information and may not include secondary dwellings, but may cover dual occupancies where there are separate connections.
  
  An alternative measure is Gross dwelling completions, which is where demolitions of existing dwellings are ignored. This approach is used by the ABS in their Building Activity Survey. The ABS Building Approvals series is also measured on a gross basis.
  
  Dwelling completions are split into two dwelling types: Detached and Multi Unit. This classification is based on the number of net additional dwellings recorded in the dataset. Records of one net dwelling completion are classified as Detached, and records of two or more net dwelling completions are classified as Multi Unit.
• Greenfield pipeline status refers to the current state of progression of a development through the stages of the development pipeline cycle. In order they are:
  • Subdivision Under Assessment
    Lots which may be created under development applications that are being assessed by relevant consent authorities
  • Subdivision Approved
    Lots that have been approved for subdivision but the registration with NSW Land Registry Services (LRS) has not yet occurred
  • Lot Vacant
    Lots that have been subdivided, but have not started dwelling construction or have any dwellings completed
  • Lot with Dwelling Under Construction
    Lots that have been subdivided and completed registration with NSW LRS, and dwelling construction has commenced as evidenced by earthworks
  • Multi-dwelling Assessment
    Multi-dwellings which may be developed under development applications that are being assessed by relevant consent authorities
  • Multi-dwelling Approved
    Multi-dwellings that have been approved by the relevant consent authority
  • Multi-dwelling Under Construction
    Multi-dwellings that have been approved for development and construction has commenced as evidenced by earthworks
• Housing supply forecast refers to the Department’s annual forecast that models the number of potential dwellings in Sydney’s future housing supply, providing information about where, when and how many new homes are likely to be built in the Greater Sydney area over the next five years. There are three scenarios provided (low growth, central base case, and high growth).
  
  Note: For the purposes of this dashboard, we are displaying the 5 year total suburb forecast as individual year forecast, with the forecast number of dwellings evenly divided across the 5 years. This is for display purposes only and does not represent that Department’s actual forecast for each individual year.
• Infill development refers to residential development occurring in existing urban areas; non-greenfield areas.
• Net Lot Sales are a count of lots sold by a greenfield estate developer to a builder or end user. A lot is defined as sold when it has been marked as sold, deposit taken or contracted. Lots on hold, EOI or reserved are not defined as sold. This figure does not capture lot resales (from one end user to another).

• Local government areas (LGAs) are gazetted local government boundaries defined by each state and territory, where the provision of services is administered for. There are 33 LGAs within Greater Metropolitan Sydney.
• Districts are administrative areas identified by the Greater Sydney Commission in the Greater Sydney Region Plan, A Metropolis of Three Cities and through the District Plans. There are five districts across Sydney, each of which are comprised of multiple LGAs.
• Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s) are a standard area produced by the ABS reflecting communities of interest based on economic or social characteristics; considering suburb boundaries. Each Statistical Areas Level 2 has an average population of about 10,000 persons as at the most recent census and generally range between 3,000 and 25,000 persons.
• Growth areas are regions identified by the Department for directing new growth, either as urban renewal or as greenfield development.
• Precincts are smaller development geographies often sited within urban or greenfield growth areas.
• Release area is an alternate term for greenfield precinct, applying to land released for new urban development by a local council.
• Suburbs are areas defined by the Geographical Names Board of NSW for address purposes.

Completions

The completions dataset contains net dwelling completions collected and analysed as part of the Department’s responsibilities to monitor residential dwelling completions. It is inferred from water connection billing information which is then spatially overlaid and aggregated by areas of interest. 

Approvals

Approvals data is from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Building Approvals release. It contains information relating to residential and non-residential building work where final approval to begin construction has been granted. It is published by the ABS monthly, however for the UDP dashboard it is aggregated to quarterly intervals.

Housing Supply Forecast

The Sydney Housing Supply Forecast is produced every year. Detailed methodology and data download can be found on the Sydney Housing Supply Forecast web page.

Greenfield Development Pipeline

• Greenfield development data is produced by the Department and collected using a combination of Cordell Connect and consent authority websites. It is then confirmed using NearMap imagery.
• Greenfield Lot Sales data is sourced from Research4. This data is aggregated by the Department to greenfield precincts for analysis and display.
• Dwelling potential is a gross estimate of the total number of dwellings that could be completed over time. Historical dwelling completions are excluded from this figure.

Market trends

Market trends information includes rental vacancy rate, median sales price (and change), median asking rent (and change). This information is sourced and then aggregated to a district level. contact CoreLogic and SQM for raw data.

See Urban Development Program resources for other accompanying information.

The following table highlights the spatial and temporal range of each dataset displayed within the dashboard. Please note the datasets are updated at different intervals.

Additional comments

Completions

• Additional half-yearly net dwelling completions data is available on request back to July-December 2006
• Aggregate net dwelling completion figures for the Greater Sydney Region are available by Financial Year from 1949-50.