00:00Pamela Messiah says Yaramundi property is 40,000 square metres.
00:07Is there more bacon?
00:08But there's only one home on it for seven people.
00:11Hayley and Phil moved back to help me with my husband when he had dementia.
00:17Then they stayed on because I would have to have sold the place.
00:21Plans to build a second home on the land were rejected by Hawkesbury Council.
00:26So we could look after Pam as she got older and in turn she could help us look after the kids.
00:32Ultimately they were granted permission by the courts to renovate.
00:36The days when a council decides if a second home can be built on the state's largest properties could be numbered.
00:43A parliamentary inquiry is exploring whether that should be baked into planning laws for properties bigger than 20,000 square metres.
00:51The most expensive part of building any new house is the land.
00:54So the land is sitting there unused at the moment.
00:57They're already in a position where they're able to build a second dwelling under the existing planning rules.
01:04So I can't really see this measure as addressing housing affordability.
01:09Councils are pushing back saying each site has unique needs and that they'd have to service more people without rates going up.
01:18Righto, your rates are two grand a year. We're going to charge you three grand a year now. No worries.
01:22The government says the proposed planning tool has merit, but for specific property types, like farms, some tweaks might be needed.
01:30Farmers say the lack of housing limits productivity.
01:33Farmers struggle to house workers. Families face difficulty planning succession.
01:39But some councils fear it could lead to more farming land being rezoned to residential.
01:45Any becomes immediate address.
01:58The program may be needed.
