Sydney faces a twin crisis with a housing supply problem running parallel with an acute shortage of industrial land to support business activity growth, Business Sydney Executive Director Paul Nicolaou said today.
Mr Nicolaou said both issues were crying out for a solution with Sydney having the world’s lowest level of available industrial land with a vacancy rate of just 0.2 per cent – only a 12-month supply for industry needs.
As a result, Sydney risked losing more investment and jobs to Melbourne and Brisbane where industrial land is more plentiful, more widely scattered and more affordable.
“The acute shortage of industrial land is looming as a major challenge if Sydney is to restore its manufacturing base and ensure an affordable goods supply chain system to the whole of Sydney,” Mr Nicolaou said.
“It is of great concern that only eight per cent of land in Greater Sydney is zoned industrial and only 0.2 per cent of existing industrial land is vacant — the lowest rate in the world.
“Sydney must accelerate residential development to address Sydney’s housing crisis but also preserve industrial land to ensure the cost-effective distribution of goods to homes and businesses.
“With such a critically low industrial land vacancy rate, businesses are bypassing Sydney and taking their investments and jobs to Melbourne and Brisbane, where industrial land is cheaper and closer to labour markets.
“The industrial land issue will only get worse with population growth and more goods will have to be distributed over long distances to people and businesses across Sydney, increasing their cost.”
Mr Nicolaou said industrial land can’t just be limited to western Sydney. It must be spread throughout Greater Sydney to reduce the need for trucks to travel longer distances across the metropolitan area adding to road congestion.
“Having more trucks on the road is not what Sydney needs when we are trying to reduce road congestion and greenhouse gas emissions while acting to ease cost-of-living pressures,” he said.
“Sydney’s current supply of industrial land must be protected while working to achieve a more plentiful supply. Only this approach can put downward pressure on business rents, allow new businesses to enter the Sydney market and enable existing businesses to upsize.”
MEDIA CONTACT David Jones 0448 285 996 [email protected]
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