As housing affordability reaches crisis point across regional NSW, Tweed Shire Council says it is pursuing a multi-pronged response, including unlocking community assets, advancing the long-anticipated Kings Forest precinct and lobbying the state government to curb developer land banking.
Mayor Chris Cherry said housing was her defining focus this term, with council working to assemble a pipeline of practical solutions.
“We’ve had the 2017 floods, the 2019 bushfires, COVID, the 2022 floods, and Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Our community has been battered. Workers, families, older residents – they are struggling to find anywhere affordable to live,” Cherry said. “That’s why we can’t afford to leave solutions sitting on the table. That’s why every front matters, because our community has waited long enough.”
Rental vacancy rates in the Tweed are about 1 per cent, well below the 3 per cent generally considered a balanced market. Median house prices have nearly doubled since 2019. NSW Department of Communities and Justice data shows 93.8 per cent of very low-income renters and 74.9 per cent of low-income renters in the Tweed are in housing stress.
In 2025, 155 people were recorded sleeping rough in the shire, up from 58 in 2021. The 2022 floods destroyed or rendered uninhabitable more than 500 homes.
Council says its response is operating on three fronts.
Unlocking existing assets
At South Murwillumbah, Greenhills Lodge — a former 44-unit aged care facility on Tweed Valley Way — has been vacant since a 2022 flood-triggered riverbank landslip affected the site behind it. The units were largely undamaged.
Council has been working with Homes NSW and the NSW Reconstruction Authority to assess options for the site under its Affordable Housing Strategy. Homes NSW recently returned to inspect the property. Council has also acknowledged in-principle support from the Housing Minister and local MP Janelle Saffin.
Council wants Homes NSW to take control of the site for social, affordable, worker or transitional housing, including accommodation for women in need. It says stabilising the landslip and refurbishing the units could cost less than a quarter of the recently approved 80-unit Boyd Street social housing project at Tweed Heads, and could be delivered in months rather than years.
“To realise this opportunity, it is critical that support is received from Homes NSW and the NSW Reconstruction Authority,” Cr Cherry said. “The solution is right in front of us – we just need the enabling investment to bring it to life.”
Kings Forest
The 869-hectare Kings Forest site behind Casuarina, first proposed three decades ago, is now progressing. Developer Stockland acquired the master-planned site in August 2025 and has released 148 lots — the first in 20 years — with a further 270 expected by mid-2026. The project is approved for about 4500 homes.
Council completed water and sewer infrastructure for the site in 2012 after borrowing to forward-fund the works.
“Council borrowed and forward-funded the essential water and sewer works, completing them in 2012, so that when the time came, the groundwork was already done,” General Manager Troy Green said. “Now our focus is making sure that pipeline keeps moving, because our community can’t afford for it to stall.”
Infrastructure works to duplicate Tweed Coast Road are expected to begin in mid-2026.
The Tweed’s population of almost 99,000 is forecast to reach 112,244 by 2041, requiring more than 12,000 additional dwellings. Council says Kings Forest will play a key role in meeting that demand.
Land banking
Council is lobbying the NSW Government for reform to address approved but undeveloped lots held by developers.
Under its proposal, approved lots left undeveloped beyond a reasonable timeframe would be rated as if they were built on, reducing the financial incentive to hold land.
“We can plan all we like. If we don’t have a mechanism to make sure those houses get developed, what’s the point?” Cr Cherry said. “When Council rezones land for housing, it does so because there is a need. If that development then sits mothballed, it makes it extremely difficult for utility providers to plan, fund and build the infrastructure to support it. We need the state government to give us that lever.”
Research by Prosper Australia found developers in master-planned communities held an average of 76 per cent of their land bank vacant after 9.5 years, with lot prices increasing at more than double the rate of wage growth.
Long-term planning
Council is progressing its Tweed Growth Management and Housing Strategy, aimed at increasing supply through what it describes as “gentle density”, including dual occupancies, townhouses and manor houses — generally up to two storeys — near shops, services and public transport.
A draft strategy, building on a recently finalised options paper, is expected to go on public exhibition mid-year.
Director of Sustainable Communities and Environment Naomi Searle said council’s role extended beyond housing supply.
“A house is the foundation,” Ms Searle said. “But people also need the wraparound services – outreach, mental health support, pathways to employment. Council’s job is to advocate for all of it, and we will keep doing that.”
Recent advocacy and initiatives include supporting the inclusion of local government partnership principles in the Homes for NSW Strategy 2025–2035; helping establish Northern Rivers Zero, which aims to end rough sleeping across seven Northern Rivers local government areas by 2034; supporting the By-Name List, a real-time database tracking 244 people experiencing homelessness in the Tweed; welcoming the purchase of 70 supported temporary accommodation units at Tweed Heads South by the NSW Government; submitting a housing-first framework to two NSW health strategy consultations; and commissioning five architectural concept designs for social and affordable housing on council-owned land.
Council is also advocating for continued funding of the Tweed Assertive Outreach Program, currently funded until 30 June 2026, which deploys Homes NSW caseworkers and health professionals to engage people sleeping rough.
“This is one of the most tangible things we could do right now. Real homes, real people, right here in our community – and at a cost that makes genuine sense. We’ll keep pushing until we get there,” Cherry said.
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