The NSW Government says it is moving on multiple fronts to ease the state’s housing shortage, unveiling new tools for councils to unlock surplus land for affordable homes while overhauling planning laws to ensure new developments are climate-resilient and faster to approve.

At the centre of the latest push is a new guide from the Office of Local Government designed to help councils audit their own operational land – such as former depots and unused facilities – and assess its suitability for affordable housing projects.

The Council Led Affordable Housing on Operational Land Guide provides step-by-step advice, from identifying sites through to partnering with community housing providers and managing construction. It responds to one of the biggest barriers to affordable housing: the high cost of acquiring well-located land.

Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully said councils must play a bigger role in increasing supply.

“(The Government’s) land audit has identified several sites that are no longer being used that can deliver thousands of new homes, with the support of this new guide, we’re asking councils to do the same,” Mr Scully said.

Examples already under way include 39 affordable units delivered on surplus council land at Bomaderry by Shoalhaven City Council, and a 56-unit project in Lismore in partnership with Landcom, Homes NSW and a community housing provider.

The guide builds on broader state reforms, including five-year housing completion targets for 43 local government areas across metropolitan Sydney, the Illawarra-Shoalhaven, Lower Hunter and Central Coast, along with a statewide target for regional NSW.

At the same time, the Government is seeking to future-proof new supply. A proposed Climate Change and Natural Hazards State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP), released for exhibition this month, aims to consolidate and streamline hazard-related planning rules.

Climate Change Minister Penny Sharpe said the reforms would ensure homes are built to withstand worsening natural disasters.

“This policy ensures our homes, businesses and infrastructure are built smarter and safer to withstand the extreme weather impacts we know are coming,” Ms Sharpe said.

The SEPP would replace the existing Resilience and Hazards policy and embed climate resilience into the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, following passage of the Planning System Reform Bill 2025.

The private sector has welcomed the changes. Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston said fragmented planning frameworks had led to homes being approved in high-risk areas.

“In the past five years alone, insured losses in Australia from extreme weather have reached an estimated $22.5 billion – up 67 per cent from the previous five-year period – and the risks continue to rise,” Mr Johnston said.

Industry and government initiatives are also being complemented by federal efforts under the National Housing Accord, which aims to deliver 1.2 million well-located homes nationally over five years from 2024.