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September 9, 2026 — 5:45pm
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Proposals to build 30-storey plus apartment towers around the corner would put the wind up most suburbs, but Sydney’s worsening housing crisis is likely to require sacrifices that simultaneously promise a better future while damaging what many residents hold dear.
Draft plans have revealed varied building heights of 34 storeys around Edgecliff station and 32 storeys around a future Woollahra station as part of a state government plan to ramp up housing supply east of Sydney’s CBD. The new homes would be built over the next 20 years over 168 hectares of privately owned eastern suburbs land, with 40 per cent of homes sited within 200 metres of train stations.
At face value, this seems reasonable. Sydney’s anaemic rate of home building in the early 2000s plunged to levels lower than during the Great Depression and World War II. Given the cost-of-living crisis now feeding into mortgage stress and soaring rents and the continuing efforts by federal and state governments to address the housing problem, Premier Chris Minns has tackled the state’s housing supply crisis by legislating increased density and fast-tracking construction of some projects around train stations.
Labor’s housing reforms were aimed at providing accommodation for essential services workers – teachers, nurses, paramedics and police, as well as regenerating suburbs with high concentrations of older residents. The proposals for Woollahra and Edgecliff certainly address the flight of families.
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Nevertheless, the plans triggered local backlash as residential Woollahra streets with mostly two-storey homes and low-density unit blocks will be rezoned to accommodate the towers. Woollahra Council has deemed the proposal as a “disaster”, and the opposition, while supportive, was wary of a plan to slug developers $15,000 per home built within 800 metres of Woollahra train station to help fund construction, calling it a “tax on developers”.
There are parts of Woollahra that are truly beautiful and raise the question about the extent to which we need to protect Sydney’s treasures amid a building boom.
Minns announced the new development would provide 9400 new homes, adding it wasn’t fair to ask the western suburbs to carry the burden of increasing Sydney’s housing stock, but conceded the rezoning was unlikely to combat the affordable housing crisis. The proposal includes a 3 per cent affordable housing contribution in perpetuity, or 15 per cent in selected buildings, and raises questions of how many essential workers will be accommodated.
Saddling the Liberal heartland with a monster unprecedented development proposal smacks somewhat of political expediency with the advantage of being politically risk-free for Minns because this part of the eastern suburbs is a Labor-free zone.
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Regrettably, the premier chose to frame his announcement in the broader context of western suburbs development and avoid the issue of unwanted high-rises.
Housing should be built in the eastern suburbs. Woollahra is a good place; however, it is not Surfers Paradise and its unique beauty requires sensitive protection. While we broadly support higher density housing closer to transport and the CBD, thought must be given to need, land availability, practicality, heritage and amenity.
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