NSW Plans 2500-Home Shift for Wollongong Estate

Homes NSW wants to rezone a Wollongong suburb and add five times the number of homes under plans now on exhibition. 

The state agency has applied to rezone its Bellambi estate via the Social and Affordable Housing Pathway. 

It wants to amend the Wollongong Local Environment Plan to allow 2500 new social, affordable and market homes on the Bellambi estate, 8km north of the Wollongong CBD. 

Homes NSW is asking for a minimum of 30 per cent new social homes to be stipulated in the rezoning, with maximum building heights of between three and six storeys. 

The rezoning proposal for Homes NSW from FPD Planning and Cox Architecture seeks to amend the current low-density residential zoning to medium-density and local centre zoning.

Minimum lot size controls would be amended from 449sq m to 200sq m and the rezoning would also more than double the existing maximum height controls.

Its plans also include a new local centre with retail and amenities, a public plaza and open spaces, with a target of 30 per cent canopy cover.

▲ A map of the Bellambi estate investigation area proposed for rezoning by Homes NSW.

The suburb, 83km south of Sydney, was earmarked for residential growth in 2024. 

Homes NSW said the area, on the land of Traditional Custodians the Dharawal Wodi Wodi peoples, contained many 1970s and 1980s-era social homes that were ageing and not fit for purpose. 

Of the 465 homes on the estate, according to the rezoning proposal, 434 are owned by Homes NSW, seven owned by the Aboriginal Housing Office and 24 privately owned. The estate has the highest concentration of social housing in Wollongong.

The suburb currently has a population of 4038 residents, so the rezoning could more than double the population. 

▲ The NSW Government identified Bellambi as an area suitable for urban renewal and rezoning in 2024.

Undertaking a community consultation between August 2024 and March 2025, Homes NSW said the “long-term proposal” would ease pressure on the local housing market. 

The plans would be delivered in stages over the next 15 to 20 years, and there would be no net loss of social homes, the agency said. 

Wollongong needs an estimated 28,000 homes during the next 20 years, and its National Housing Accord allocation targets 9200 homes by 2029. 

Developers have seen the potential in the area, with major projects such as Level 33’s 546-apartment Wollongong shoptop precinct now in progress, with plans for the $229-million Wollongong RSL revamp and a five-building project on Burelli Street waved ahead in the past year.

▲ A section of the social housing on the site at Bellambi, overlooking a popular surf spot north of Wollongong. Image: Geoff Holmes