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Confirmed Waterloo South Consortium delivers homes from 2031
Waterloo South Players new and old
The NSW Government has signed contracts to develop the first stage of the Waterloo South Renewal Project with the Stockland, Link Wentworth Housing, City West Housing and Birribee Housing Consortium. At the media conference on April 10 2025, Managing Director and CEO of Stockland, Tarun Gupta said he expected construction to start in 2027 and to start delivering new homes in 2031.
The Waterloo redevelopment website says the “project will deliver more than 1,000 new social homes, over 600 affordable homes and around 1,500 private homes in a mixed and integrated community”. The announcement shows an increase of 100 social housing units over earlier Homes NSW requirements for 30 per cent of 3,000 to be social housing and 20 per cent affordable housing. This also pushes the number of home units delivered up from 3,000 to 3,100. It is not currently known how these extra social housing homes will be delivered within the planning controls.
The government’s requirements have also been exceeded in the delivery of an additional 5 per cent of social housing homes dedicated to Aboriginal people. Dedicated Aboriginal housing now is 20 per cent of social and 15 per cent of affordable housing. It has been confirmed that Birribee Housing, the Aboriginal Community Housing (CHP) provider, will manage both Aboriginal social and affordable housing leaving open the possibility of movement between the two tenure types without changing landlord and hopefully while being able to stay in the same house. It has also been confirmed that Aboriginal tenants will continue to be housed in the non-Aboriginal controlled CHPs if they wish.
One area of community concern that the Minister left open to bidders in August 2023 was the possibility that the affordable housing might not be in perpetuity. We understand that the plan is for all affordable housing to be in perpetuity although funding to make this possible has not yet been finalised.
Reaching this point has been a long drawn-out process starting in July 2022 with an Expression of Interest (EOI) process. The EOI requirements were modified in August 2023 by adding requirements for 50 per cent social and affordable housing by the new Labor Government. A preferred tender was announced in August 2024 and since then final contract negotiations have been underway.
Much to the frustration of both the community and consortium partners, consortium members have been contractually bound not to talk to community members or community organisations about the project. Finally consortium members can talk directly to the community about the redevelopment.
No details have been released about what has been agreed between Homes NSW and the Consortium. It is not known, for example, how a Homes NSW People and Place Plan, dealing with human services issues related to the redevelopment, has been handled in the Consortium agreement. That plan was roundly criticised by community groups when exhibited and has not re-emerged. Consortium members and Homes NSW have been invited to a REDWatch meeting on Thursday 5 June to present the proposal and answer questions.
With contracts now finalised, the project will progress to the next phase, including site investigations, planning approvals and ongoing community engagement, alongside the staged tenant relocations already underway. It is expected planning approvals will take about 2 years.
With echoes of the rationale for the Metro coming to Waterloo rather than Sydney University, Minister Jackson, at the media conference, used the Waterloo redevelopment as a good example of Transit Orientated Development (TOD) delivering more density with well-located homes and said they would be taking advantage of any and all instruments to build for the demand.
Prior to the consortium announcement Minister Jackson met with some of the tenants being relocated from Waterloo South Stage One into the new social housing above Waterloo Metro that will be run by Link Wentworth. At the announcement the Minister emphasised that the redevelopment was about better homes for social housing tenants and not just about more homes.
You can see the statements about this announcement at the following links by the agreement parties: NSW Government Media Release; Waterloo South Renewal Project web page; Stockland, Link Wentworth Housing, City West Housing and Birribee Housing.
Photo: Waterloo South Players new and old. L to R Paul Coe - CEO of Birribee Housing, Leonie King - CEO of City West Housing, Andrew McAnulty - CEO of Link Wentworth, Tarun Gupta - Managing Director and CEO of Stockland, Famey Williams - CE Aboriginal Housing Office, Michael Wheatley - Head of Housing Portfolio Homes NSW and Rose Jackson – NSW Minister for Housing and Homelessness. Photo Geoff Turnbull.
