'It's a culture of no, a culture that has effectively blocked new housing,' said NSW Premier Chris Minns.
New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns says the rate of home building in his state has consistently been outpaced by its northern and southern neighbours.
The comments were made during an event hosted by the Centre for Independent Studies on Aug. 26 in Sydney, where the premier also called for a change to resistance against high-density living.
"Sydney is a great city, the best city, but it's the second most expensive city in the world, behind only Hong Kong, and by some measures, it's the 800th densest city in the world," said Minns. "I think those two things are related to one another."
For the last 30 years, the city has been consistently out-built by Victoria and Queensland.
"To put it in perspective, we build six homes per 1,000 residents every 12 months ... In Victoria, they produce eight houses per 1,000 people; and in Queensland, it's nine houses per 1,000 people every 12 months," he said.
As a result, Sydney has been losing younger residents every year, twice as many as it is getting back.
"Last year, it was 40,000 young people packing their bags in the prime of their working life ... People that want to be doctors and nurses and police officers, people that we want to start their own businesses, to become entrepreneurs ... to join communities and start families, but not here in Sydney, just somewhere else."