The Urban Development Program (UDP) monitors and coordinates the delivery of development, land supply, and infrastructure. The UDP supports the delivery of infrastructure and new development by improving the coordination of the various stakeholders responsible for development and infrastructure delivery, and by actively managing a pipeline of future development.
UDPs provide a single point to better manage data and information sharing, improve coordination and engagement, and provide more transparency between government and non-government stakeholders.
UDPs operate in the Six Cities Region and other high growth areas of regional areas.
Greater Sydney 6 cities:
- Lower and Greater Newcastle City
- Central Coast City
- Illawarra-Shoalhaven City
- Western Parkland City
- Central River City
- Eastern Harbour City
New Regional UDPs:
- Upper Hunter and Mid-Coast regions
- Capital regions
Greater Sydney UDP’s and New Regional UDPs 
Greater Sydney UDPs 
Greater Sydney Three Cities 
Western Parkland City 
Central River City 
Eastern Harbour City
Key functions
The Urban Development Program is tasked to undertake the following key functions in the planning system:
Monitoring: zoned land supply, development approvals, infrastructure status, issues that are blocking housing and employment land supply and delivery.
Forecasting: the forward pipeline of housing and housing needs.
Implementation: providing advice across government on priority development areas, infrastructure needs, identification, and development of solutions to overcome housing and infrastructure shortfalls.
Six Cities Urban Development Programs
The Greater Cities Commission's, Six Cities Region comprises the Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle City, Central Coast City, Illawarra-Shoalhaven City, Western Parkland City, Central River City and Eastern Harbour City.
DPE will work collaboratively with its stakeholders and provide a forum for councils, industry, and agencies to come together and identify the infrastructure needs and make recommendations for infrastructure priorities. The UDP will deliver a 20 year prioritised list of infrastructure across the Six City Region as required by the Housing Productivity Contributions (HPC).
The HPC will help to fund transport, education, recreation, conservation, health, community, and justice related infrastructure. The UDP will assist the Government’s decision making by prioritising infrastructure under the governance arrangements for the HPC.
The UDPs in the Six Cities Region will coordinate its work and decision making with other workstreams and programs within the department that involve the delivery of jobs, housing, and infrastructure. This includes work undertaken as part of the National Housing Accord, Housing Productivity Contributions and Greater Cities Commission.
The expansion strategy across metropolitan Sydney is a staged approach that will build off the successes in the Western Parkland City, expanding firstly to the Central River City from August 2023, with the Eastern Harbour expansion commencing from January 2024.
Regional Urban Development Programs
New regional UDPs are being established in response to the recommendations of the Regional Housing Taskforce and to help deliver the Regional Plans.
Regional UDPs helps bring forward the supply of development ready land and improve the coordination and delivery of new housing and infrastructure in regional NSW.
UDPs in operation in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region and in Greater Newcastle, and the newly established Central Coast UDP all now fall within the Six Cities Region.
In regional areas outside the Six Cites Region, UDPs have recently been established in the:
- Upper Hunter and Mid-Coast regions (Dungog, Mid-Coast, Muswellbrook, Singleton, and Upper Hunter LGAs).
- Capital region (Queanbeyan-Palerang, Goulburn and Yass LGAs).
The department will investigate establishing other regional UDPs in future financial years.
To aid in the establishment of new UDPs and align processes across existing UDPs, the department has prepared the NSW Urban Development Programs – Guide for implementation in regional NSW (PDF, 2.8 MB). The guide describes how UDPs will operate in the regions and establishes a standardised data, reporting and governance framework.
UDP Dashboards
The government has established UDP dashboards for the regions in Greater Sydney, Newcastle, Central Coast, and Upper Hunter and Mid Coast. Monitoring has also begun for the North Coast Region. A dashboard is under development for the Capital region (Queanbeyan-Palerang and Yass Valley).
Online dashboards are being established to monitor key housing data in UDP areas.
| Region | Approvals | Completions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-year average (FY 2017-18 to FY 2021-22) | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | 5-year average (FY 2017-18 to FY 2021-22) | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | |
| Australia | 203,358 | 222,298 | 200,688 | 194,708 | 180,134 | 172,788 |
| NSW | 58,894 | 60,387 | 54,618 | 59,270 | 51,377 | 45,379 |
| Central Coast | 1,600 | 1,416 | 1,496 | 1,462 | 1,314 | 1,169 |
| Greater Newcastle | 4,854 | 5,381 | 4,699 | 4,127 | 4,442 | 3,851 |
| Greater Sydney | 40,617 | 40,812 | 36,432 | 34,279 | 29,785 | 24,641 |
| Illawarra-Shoalhaven | 3,253 | 3,362 | 3,263 | 2,211 | 2,636 | 2,032 |
| North Coast | 2,922 | 2,965 | 3,076 | 2,620 | 2,486 | 2,165 |
| Upper Hunter and Mid Coast | 664 | 695 | 833 | 607 | 561 | 803 |
Sources: ABS 2022, Building Approvals, Australia; ABS 2022, Building Activity, Australia; DPE 2022; Completions for Greater Sydney and Illawarra-Shoalhaven are inferred from water connection information provided by Sydney Water.
For more information on the UDPs, email the team at [email protected]