Tanker trucks daily as 82,500 approved homes cannot be built – realestate.com.au

Entire estates will live without sewerage by 2025, Australia’s fastest growing councils warn. Another 82,500 approved houses are blocked due to a lack of basic services such as roads and sewerage.

A third of the entire new housing pipeline is now stalled, posing a direct threat to the National Housing Agreement’s target of 1.2 million homes, according to a report released on Wednesday by the National Growth Areas Alliance.

MORE: Revealed: Affordable suburbs Australians can still afford

Thousands of dollars worth of fake grass are at risk if municipalities crack down

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is confronted with the target of 1.2 million new homes being overturned due to a lack of basic services such as roads and sewerage. Photo: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

---

MORE: Emma McKeon and Cody Simpson seal huge payday

Transformation of Hi-5 Star after giving up his fame

Infrastructure shortages are affecting up to 47 per cent of construction projects in Greater Sydney, 45 per cent in South East Queensland and 31 per cent in Melbourne, the Beyond Bricks report warned.

On average, Australia’s 29 Growth Area councils – which make up just 5 per cent of all councils – approve more than 61,000 homes each year, with the number rising to 320,000 in the past five years – around half of all approvals in the five capital cities, the report shows.

Bronwen Clark, CEO of NGAA, said: “The land is ready, council approvals are complete and developers are waiting, but without basic services such as roads and sewerage, the houses remain vacant.”

Despite their track record, the 29 municipalities are required by state governments to deliver 310,000 new homes by 2029 – equivalent to 26 percent of the federal government’s target of 1.2 million homes under the National Housing Agreement.

The City of Swan is under enormous pressure to roll out more residential areas, but is facing an infrastructure bottleneck.

---

Growth areas have delivered the most new homes since 2016 (1 million+ homes nationwide). Source: NGA

---

MORE: ‘It’s a grind’: Hewitt exposes life on the road

Qld real estate boom: a seller’s paradise is coming

Gosnells City Mayor Terresa Lynes, chair of the National Growth Areas Alliance, warned “we are seeing entire estates with no connected sewers and insufficient water”.

“It is worrying that in 2025, governments expect people to accept this as their fate,” she said. “The government is failing these Australians before their homes are even built, let alone through the subsequent underfunding of the infrastructure communities need to thrive once they live there.”

Ms Clark said that “blaming all councils for housing delays is an easy way out for state and federal governments, but the facts are that councils in growth areas have become the backbone of housing supply, accounting for 35 per cent of national housing approvals”.

In Henley Brook in the town of Swan, Western Australia, 3,500 already occupied homes require tanker trucks to remove wastewater every day due to a lack of sewerage. In South Australia, 700 homes across eight estates are storing sewage in wells, and refilling will take at least four years.

In Campbelltown, New South Wales, a sewerage plant will not be installed until 2040, meaning new construction could be placed on 2,000 homes, while 30,000 could be built.

Proposed community land management plan for sports fields for Riverlea Park in the town of Playford, one of the areas under enormous pressure on infrastructure. Photo: City of Playford.

---

Key features of Australia’s growth areas. Source: NGAA/ABS

---

The report identified infrastructure shortages in twenty municipalities in four states:

N.S.W

Blacktown City: 3,600 homes blocked | Rainwater management

Blacktown City: 50,000 homes blocked | All utilities, rail upgrades

Penrith City: 5,700 homes blocked (potential 30,000) | Utilities

Penrith City: 8,000 homes blocked | Roads

Camden Council: 18,500 homes blocked | Utilities

Campbelltown City: 2,000 homes blocked (potential 30,000) | Sewerage (only in 2040)

Wollondilly Shire: 6,600 homes blocked | Sewerage

VICTORIA

Cardinia Shire: 7,000 homes blocked (potential 22,400) | Roads, sewerage, water, energy

City of Melton: 132,000 potential homes | Roads, railways, healthcare, education

City of Hume: 11,000 homes blocked | Roads, railways, healthcare, education, utilities

City of Whittlesea: 87,000 potential homes | Roads, utilities

City of Wyndham: 120,000 potential homes | All utilities, roads, rail

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

City of Playford: 700 houses blocked (potential 33,800) | Sewerage (sewage in wells, refueling 4+ years)

Rural town of Murray Bridge: 17,100 potential homes | Water, rainwater

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

City of Cockburn: 3,000 homes blocked | Water

City of Swan: 15,500 houses blocked (36,000 potential) | Sewerage, water, energy (daily tankers)

Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale: 2,000 homes blocked | Roads, sewerage, energy

City of Wanneroo: 3,000 houses blocked (potential 67,000) | All utilities

MORE REAL ESTATE NEWS