An older unit block would be flattened to make way for penthouses with their own rooftop pools in Sydney’s east, under a $78 million proposal that has reignited debate about replacing cheaper homes with luxury apartments.
Sydney developer Toohey Miller is seeking to leverage the NSW government’s affordable housing incentives to bulldoze a three-storey block of 27 studio apartments and several townhouses before redeveloping the site with an eight-storey building of 40 units on Oxford Street, opposite the Victoria Barracks military base, in Paddington.
Detailed plans published last week show the project would include 10 affordable homes, offered at below-market rent for 15 years, on lower floors. Four two-storey penthouses would have private pools and terraces.
Woollahra councillor Harriet Price said locals were “rightly appalled by the proponent’s plan to demolish 27 relatively affordable studio apartments to make way for private penthouses with plunge pools and harbour views”.
The Minns government’s affordable housing bonus scheme is designed to boost supply by giving developers up to 30 per cent extra height and floor space if they temporarily provide 15 per cent of homes at lower rent.
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, Woollahra Council and The Paddington Society residents group are among critics who argue the Oxford Street revamp would result in an overall loss of relatively affordable homes.
Price said the affordable housing scheme “is not delivering the long-term housing our city needs”.
“A city in a housing crisis needs keys in front doors not cocktails by the pool,” she said.
Greenwich criticised the detailed plans to redevelop the site as “a cruel insult to existing residents”.
“It’s so perverse that the affordable housing offset is being used to demolish affordable housing and replace it with luxury penthouses with multiple pools, similar to what you would see in Ipanema. This is Paddo, not Rio,” he said.
The proposal includes three three-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments. There would also be a communal pool and shops on the ground floor.
Toohey Miller’s proposal said the two-storey penthouses had “expansive indoor-outdoor living and elevated views”, and that the revamp would mix market and affordable apartments, supporting “housing diversity”.
Community housing provider EchoRealty said in a supportive letter that the project supported the proposed location of the affordable housing apartments within the building, and the overall mix of unit types, “noting these elements are well suited to meet the needs of the intended affordable housing tenant groups”.
The proposal is on exhibition until March 16.
Tom Forrest, of the Urban Taskforce developer lobby group, said of the lavish apartments: “So what?” Using the government’s bonuses to deliver affordable housing “should be warmly applauded, not derided”, Forrest said.
“You could describe it as a bribe by government, but it is an incentive-based system, and it is working.”
Planning Minister Paul Scully said 43 projects had been approved using the affordable housing bonuses. They represented more than 24,000 homes, including more than 5000 affordable homes. He said the government would provide more affordable homes in perpetuity in transport-oriented development zones and at Bays West.
“It’s only through a mix of actions that housing will be delivered in all areas for people with different incomes and at different stages of life,” Scully said.
The government on Tuesday announced a rezoning of Burwood North, which will have a metro station in 2032. The suburb could be home to 18,300 dwellings, with 5 to 10 per cent classified as affordable housing.
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