Policy & planning changes

Your feedback on proposed changes to reduce the loss of housing across the City of Sydney area

Closed

Council approved the planning proposal for dwelling retention on 25 November 2024. Changes to the Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 were finalised and came into effect on 30 May 2025.

Public consultation period to

What we’re doing 

We invite your feedback on proposed planning rules that will help us retain the number of homes available for people in the City of Sydney area to rent, buy and live in.  

Our proposed changes are designed to ensure when a residential building is redeveloped the number of ‘dwellings’ or homes within that building does not drop significantly. 

Planning proposal

The proposed changes: 

  • apply to residential flat buildings or a mixed-use building that contains 3 or more dwellings 
  • limit the loss of dwellings in redevelopment of existing residential flat building or mixed-use development to 15% (rounded to the nearest whole number) or one dwelling, whichever is greater
  • include savings and transitional provisions.

These changes do not impact on the conversion of residential floor space to a non-residential floor space.

This means that if a block of 100 units is renovated, the new building must still have at least 85 individual residences. In a block of 10 the new building would need 8.

Where an individual wants to turn a block of 6 apartments into 4 or knock down a block of apartments to create a single home, under the proposed changes, this would not be allowed.

Any development application lodged before this planning proposal is finalised will not be affected by these changes.

 
Planning proposal – dwelling retentionPDF · 3.05 MB · Last modified
Gateway determinationPDF · 95.72 KB · Last modified

Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, 5 April 2024

Why we’re doing this

The purpose of this change is to: 

  • support housing diversity and affordability by discouraging the replacement of smaller apartments with fewer large apartments
  • maintain and grow housing supply in the city
  • maintain housing close to amenities and public transport. 

The proposed changes are in response to the loss of dwellings and diversity of housing supply. The changes ensure that redevelopment of existing housing stock does not significantly reduce the number and diversity of available dwellings in the local area.

Next steps

We’ll consider all feedback and report the results to Council and the Central Sydney Planning Committee. If approved, it will be sent to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for final approval.

The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has determined that Council will not be the local plan-making authority for this planning proposal.

How you can give feedback

Consultation closes at 5pm on Friday 23 August 2024.

  1. Complete our feedback form

    Online form

  2. Email or post your feedback

    You can give your feedback by email to [email protected] or post to:

    Gibran Khouri
    Specialist Planner
    City of Sydney
    456 Kent Street
    Sydney NSW 2000

Other ways you can give feedback

A woman points to a consultation board while others watch. Sydney Your Say
DecorativeGovernance & decision-makingCommunity engagement
Community Engagement Strategy and Community Participation Plan 2025–2029 Book coverStrategies & action plansCommunity engagement strategy and community participation planPublished 2 July 2025