Good Housing Plans 15-Storey Newcastle Co-Living Tower

Sydney specialist developer Good Housing has proposed a 15-storey co-living development in Newcastle, taking advantage of planning rule changes.

Indoor and outdoor communal space, including a roof terrace, will service 72 co-living units, in which residents have their own private space but also access to facilities such as communal kitchens. 

Good Housing, which specialises in disability accommodation, envisions that each of the rooms will have private balconies, bathrooms and kitchen facilities, with generous common spaces, including kitchens, dinings rooms and lounges. 

Below the 13 storeys of living space will sit a two-storey podium.

WPP Planning & Property submitted the concept plans on behalf of Good Housing, with a subsequent application providing more detailed plans. 

It said that the project was consistent with the Hunter Regional plan, which is targeting 70,000 additional diverse and affordable housing options in the area by 2036.

The site, at 28 Denison Street, Newcastle West is to the south west of the commercial core of the suburb, the ‘western gateway’ to Newcastle CBD. 

It was zoned as mixed-use under the 2012 Newcastle Local Environment Plan, under which co-living uses were permitted, said the planners.

Co-living was introduced into the NSW planning system in 2021 alongside independent living units. It is eligible for a density bonus of 10 per cent. 

At the time it was introduced, it was called “an unfortunate final nail in the coffin for co-living to be delivered by the private sector”. 

Amendments have since been made to simplify minimum lot size controls for co-living housing, and the Housing State Environmental Planning Policy will also be reviewed next year.

Across the country there has been a trickle though not a flood of co-living developments, such as Brightlands Living’s 14-storey building at Woolloongabba in Brisbane inner southside.