Should more apartments be built in Edgecliff and Double Bay?

Justin Simon debates James Morrow in the Daily Telegraph

Apartments in Sydney’s east are expensive because of a policy choice.

This choice keeps existing neighbourhoods encased in amber, blocks new train stations, resists sewerage upgrades and even lobbies against supermarkets.

Change is the enemy, and higher prices are a trade-off they’re willing to take to prevent it. Woollahra Council has had a decreasing population for a long time.

Based on its actions, including handing out anti-development pamphlets at citizenship ceremonies, that’s a trajectory it sees no problem with.

It becomes everyone else’s problem when somebody who’d like to purchase a unit in Woollahra instead turns up to an auction in Ashfield and outbids a young family.

That family then has to move further down the rail line until they can outbid another family and so on until someone who doesn’t want to leave Sydney is pushed to Melbourne, Canberra or the regions.

This mechanism is why research shows that building more homes brings down prices, not just for new stock, but existing stock as well - with the largest falls at the cheapest end of the market.

It has been a huge relief to see concrete action from the state government on housing in the east, and doing so alongside upgrading the rail network just makes sense.

With new metro lines costing billions we need to make the most of what we’ve already got.

This benefits the existing community around the station too – you’re now 10 minutes from the city and don’t need to worry about congestion on the 333 bus.

This plan will inject new life and energy into Woollahra and Edgecliff.

It will arrest the rapidly shrinking public school populations and help people under 40 to afford to live there.

Most importantly, it’ll make housing cheaper everywhere else in Sydney too.