Western Sydney’s $196m Housing Precinct Clears Next Stage

Approved by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure on June 15, it follows approvals for Stage 1 works and Stage 2’s Buildings A and B, putting three of the project’s four stages through the state planning system.

Available planning material does not identify a construction start.

Stage 4, covering Buildings D and E on the western side of the site, is the final stage still to be advanced.

Building C, designed by Smith & Tzannes, rises part nine, part 10 and part 12 storeys on the southernmost part of the 2.1ha holding, near Auburn Road, the rail corridor and Magney Reserve.

▲ A Smith & Tzannes rendering of Building C, the $57-million third stage of the 30-46 Auburn Road precinct at Regents Park.

Its apartment mix comprises 11 one-bedroom, 86 two-bedroom and 45 three-bedroom apartments, with parking for 198 cars, 20 motorcycles and 53 bicycles.

The wider five-building project has an estimated development cost of $196 million and 55,042sq m of gross floor area.

It includes a 3000sq m publicly accessible central park, ground-floor retail, a new internal street network and 708 car spaces.

At least 15 per cent of the development’s gross floor area is to be provided as affordable rental housing and managed by Pacific Community Housing for at least 15 years.

The wider project has shifted sharply since it was first filed in 2022 as a build-to-rent scheme with 543 apartments and about half of them affordable.

▲ An aerial view of the 2.1ha former industrial site at 30-46 Auburn Road, Regents Park, beside the rail corridor.

The applicant later recast the project as in-fill affordable housing after NSW introduced height and floor-space bonuses for schemes providing at least 10 to 15 per cent affordable housing.

Project documents said the change reduced the height of Buildings D and E while increasing Building C.

The site, a quarter-circle parcel on the western side of Auburn Road, was rezoned from industrial to residential in April 2005 but never developed for its intended use.

A 2005 proposal for 86 homes did not proceed.

Planning proposals pursued from 2013 sought floor-space ratios ranging from 2:1 to 4:1 before final controls allowed 2:1, with additional uplift through the Housing SEPP.

▲ A Smith & Tzannes design report image showing the planned built form and scale of the Regents Park precinct, including Stage 3’s Building C.

The Canterbury-Bankstown Council did not support the applicant-led density increase, and the Sydney South Planning Panel was appointed planning proposal authority in 2021 after the council no longer accepted the role.

Planning documents described the site as a large consolidated 2ha holding used for industrial and warehouse purposes, with ageing saw-tooth-roof structures and areas used for storage.

The project website said the proposal would “transform an underused block of industrial land” in Regents Park “to a landscaped residential community”.