NSW Housing Body Files Glebe Residential Project Plans

An affordable housing project has been earmarked for a site at Glebe in Sydney.

The NSW Land and Housing Corporation has filed plans with the City of Sydney for its next affordable housing project at 82 Wentworth Park Road.

Plans designed by SJB Architects propose demolishing the existing buildings on the site and building a four-storey residential building. 

There will be 43 apartments with a total of eight accessible apartments.

The ground floor will have seven one-bedroom apartments and three studio apartments as well as storage for 32 bicycles.

On the first floor will be four two-bedroom apartments and seven one-bedroom apartments out of which one two-bedroom apartment and two one-bedroom apartments will be accessible.

The number and mix of accessible apartments is the same on the second floor but in total the floor will have three two-bedroom apartments and eight one-bedroom apartments.

There will be the same apartment mix on the third floor but only one two-bedroom apartment and one one-bedroom apartment that are accessible. 

Green spaces are incorporated into terraces throughout the building and on the rooftop as well.

Existing three-storey townhouses and apartments on the site will be demolished as part of the project.

▲ Construction workers working on a new social housing complex at Gosford in NSW.

Council records list an estimated cost of development for the entire project at $21.7 million. 

In 2021, the NSW Land and Housing Corporation received $80 million to fasttrack the delivery of more than 1000 social housing homes across the state.

The NSW Land and Housing Corporation wants to create more accessibility for residents.

“We are proposing to replace properties on Wentworth Park Road with a new development that provides more accessible homes for older social housing residents and complements the historical buildings in the neighbourhood,” it said on its website.

Residents’ bills will also be reduced as the apartments are designed to be energy efficient.

▲ An artist’s impression of the NSW Land and Housing Corporation’s Cowper Street project at Glebe.

The corporation also has two other projects planned for the Glebe area, including one at the 1.5ha estate at Franklyn Street that will include private houses and social housing and one under construction with 75 apartments at Cowper Street.

The Cowper Street project is expected to be completed in 2024 while the Franklyn Street project is still in the early phases of planning.

Sydney, as most other cities in Australia, is in dire need of housing with NSW Land and Housing Corporation stating that there are nearly 50,000 households on a social housing wait list. 

It is now also become a key issue ahead of the upcoming NSW election.