00:00Well, build it and they will come, is the plan that Premier Chris Minns will be banking
00:06on here in Willara. 10,000 new homes and a new train station for the last 40 odd years
00:13since 1976. Exactly, Willara train station has effectively been left abandoned. But under
00:20the New South Wales Government's new plan, the train station will be redeveloped alongside
00:2510,000 new dwellings. Now, currently this area behind us is zoned for medium density housing.
00:32This is one of the most affluent parts of all of Sydney. But under the Government's new plan,
00:37it will be rezoned for high density housing. Now, the station behind me that's been abandoned
00:43since 1976 is halfway between Edgecliff and Bondar Junction on the eastern suburbs line.
00:49Now, the Government says it's arguably one of the least busy lines in all of Sydney operating
00:56at a maximum of 43% capacity, even during peak hour. And this is all part of what the Government
01:03says is just another reason why more homes should be developed here in the eastern suburbs. Now,
01:10a really big reason why the Government have now decided to hedge their bets on the eastern
01:15suburbs is that there was a plan that was knocked back in May of this year for 25,000 new homes to
01:21be developed at the site of Rose Hill Racecourse in Parramatta. But that was knocked back. Now,
01:27Premier Chris Minns says this will particularly be aimed towards people between the ages of 30 to 40.
01:33That's the real demographic that the Government will be targeting here, particularly young families.
01:39And part of the reason, as we've heard earlier this morning from Housing Minister Rose Jackson,
01:43is that Sydney is the second most expensive city in the world to live in, but at the same time,
01:50one of the least dense when it comes to housing. Now, we were hearing from Rose Jackson a little
01:55bit earlier today. One thing she made explicitly clear is that the Government does not want to put
02:00the burden of Sydney's housing shortage on the western suburbs. Let's take a quick listen to what
02:05she had to say. This is likely to be higher end property. I mean, you know, there are apartments that are
02:10currently for sale around that area, around the one $1.2 million mark. I mean, that is a lot of
02:15money. But I'm really interested in how, you know, those kind of arguments often mean that,
02:19oh, well, we'll never build housing in rich areas, you know, because it's more affordable
02:23to get an apartment in Parramatta. All of the development has to be in Parramatta. I mean,
02:27we should have development in Parramatta too, but we should have development right across Sydney.
02:31This is likely to be a more affluent area. But I think we're already seeing people talking about,
02:35as we start to bring more and more housing online over coming years in places like Willara,
02:40there might be some price correction.
02:45There's Housing Minister New South Wales, Housing Minister Rose Jackson. And a point that she made
02:49there towards the end is that what this could potentially see with an influx of more than
02:5410,000 new homes is potentially a price correction on what at the moment is one of the most expensive
03:01postcodes in all of Sydney, if not Australia. Now, Willara Council says that they'd previously
03:06been told by New South Wales Planning that there were no plans in the pipeline for the train station
03:12behind me. But they say that now it's clear that the New South Wales government have had these in
03:17the pipeline for quite some time. They're hoping that they'll be consulted the entire way through
03:23the process. Now, construction is set to begin in 2027 with plans for those homes in this new
03:29station to be developed right around 2029.
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