The Illawarra-Shoalhaven is "nowhere near" its target to build the housing needed for a growing population and to address the current skyrocketing rents and house prices.
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An updated dashboard, released today, shows the current scale of the housing challenge, as well as the declining number of homes approved and completions of new builds.
The new dashboard provides more current figures on how many houses and apartments are built in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven, as well as how much are being built in existing areas versus new greenfield developments.
Wollongong MP and NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully said the dashboard will include new information as well as provide a tool to match development to infrastructure.
"It's making sure there's information available through an interactive map so that people can check out where there are options to get the housing pipeline going," he said.
The NSW Housing Accord has set a target of an additional 378,000 homes in the next five years.
While the bulk of these new houses and units will be built in Sydney, UDIA southern regional and research manager Nathan Boulous said the Illawarra-Shoalhaven had a significant role to play.
"That's 20 per cent more than we've ever done before in a five year period," he said.
"Greater Sydney is going to deliver in excess of 90 per cent of this, but the Illawarra-Shoalhaven is absolutely a crucial part of that [target]."
The challenging task comes as approvals and completions decline.
The latest figures show that completions and approvals were significantly below what is needed to achieve the overall target, and even beneath previous years.
In the 2022-23 financial year, completions were down 15 per cent, while approvals were down 6.8 per cent on the previous five year average.
Average approvals was 3093 and completions 2147 while the average supply forecast for the next five yeast is 4555 homes, revealing a gap of 3614 homes in 2022-23.
"We're nowhere near those targets at the moment," Mr Boulous said.
Mr Boulous said the construction industry was coming off a period of high activity during COVID and was now adapting to labour shortages, high costs and new policy settings.
"There's so many things at the moment, some within our control and some not, that are creating this unique storm."
The increased visibility of housing completion and approvals would go some way to overcoming this challenge, but was not a silver bullet.
"The numbers are great, but it's what we do with the numbers that is just as important," Mr Boulous said.
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