A Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight
Sydney's median house price-to-income ratio now sits above 13 — a figure that would have seemed absurd to planners in the 1980s. Yet housing affordability is still treated as primarily a market problem, with planning cast in a supporting role at best.
The Planning Dimension
Zoning restrictions, heritage overlays, development contribution frameworks, and slow assessment timelines all act as supply-side constraints that compound affordability pressures. These are planning failures, and they require planning solutions.
What Needs to Change
Evidence from international comparisons — particularly Tokyo's liberalised zoning and Vienna's social housing model — suggests that planning systems can and do shape housing outcomes at scale.