According to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), Sydney is getting bigger and at the same time, increasing its overall share of the NSW population.
Put numerically, over the past decade, the harbour city’s population increased by 18 percent, or up to 60 percent of the state’s population, while at the same time, the rest of NSW only grew by 9 percent when compared to the 2011 national census.
Looking at the 2016 national census, the average number of people per household in Sydney increased from 2.8 to 2.9.
Half this growth is because family households with children grew, from 3.1 people to 3.2 people, while just over 15 percent of the growth was due to increases in multiple family households (up from 5.5 people per households to 5.6).
More than one in four households living in Sydney are made up of mum, dad and kids living in separate houses - up by 10,200 to 415,700 households.
Just over 38,400 families with children were living in higher density (four or more storey) apartment blocks. This is an increase of 14,500 (60 percent) from 2011.
In comparison, 74,100 families with children now live in semi-detached, terrace or townhouses, which is a 43 percent increase from 2011.
At the same time, the supply of these types of homes has increased by 33 percent from the last census.
Over the past five years, the overall share of Sydney’s properties with two bedrooms has remained steady at around 26 percent, while one-bedroom properties increased from 8.1 percent to 8.8 percent.
Properties with four or more bedrooms went up from 29.1 percent to 31.2 percent. At the same time, Sydney has some 462,000 properties with four or more bedrooms.
Interestingly, three-bedroom properties, while still the largest property form in Sydney, actually declined from 36.9 percent to 34 percent over the last five years.
Accoridng to the DPE, over the next 20 years, Greater Sydney will need a minimum 725,000 new homes – over 36,000 every year as its population grows.
