The oldest suburban rail network in Australia is set to welcome its first new station in over a decade. This development aims to stimulate the construction of 10,000 homes in the nation’s priciest property market.
The Woollahra station, situated on Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs line, was initially not built during the 1970s due to community opposition.
However, the New South Wales government is now keen on trains stopping at Woollahra in order to support new home construction and redistribute it from the city’s western areas, where it has predominantly taken place in recent years, to regions with existing infrastructure.
Premier Chris Minns pointed out on Sunday that young people and families in NSW have been forced to either move away from the Sydney CBD or forgo homeownership altogether due to affordability issues.
A station at Woollahra would provide commuters with a direct train to the CBD within eight minutes.
Woollahra has been identified as the most viable area for new housing near the city; however, it has consistently fallen behind in new home approvals.
The population of Woollahra has decreased by 11% over the past five decades, while Greater Sydney has experienced a 74% growth in the same period, according to government data.
Social housing agency Homes NSW currently does not possess any land near the station and has not been considering the provision of social and affordable housing in the area, Housing Minister Rose Jackson mentioned during a budget estimates hearing on Friday.
However, rezoning around Woollahra and adjacent Edgecliff station is expected to include a dedicated portion for affordable housing.
This is likely to be achieved through developers gaining access to higher floor space ratios and building heights in exchange for designated affordable housing.
The last heavy rail stations opened in Sydney’s southwest between Glenfield and Leppington in 2015, coinciding with a rise in housing construction in the region.
New construction has more recently concentrated on automated Metro services, connecting Tallawong in the city’s northwest to Sydenham, and soon to Bankstown in the southwest.
The ongoing Metro West project, which will run from the CBD to Parramatta, is still a few years away. However, efforts to accommodate 25,000 homes near a potential station at Rosehill were unsuccessful when the racecourse owners opted not to sell the site in May.
