Nearly 300 publicly owned sites worth more than $1.39 billion could be sold on the private market through the Minns government’s surplus land audit, confidential documents have revealed.

Documents tabled in NSW parliament reveal that Landcom and Homes NSW have scrutinised the viability of developing dozens of properties across the state. Two spreadsheets compiled by both agencies are significant as they provide the first insight into the extent of public land that could ultimately be sold off under the land audit, one of the government’s means of tackling the housing crisis.

The land audit was established as a means of unlocking sites – owned by departments or agencies that were unused or underutilised – for housing. In the June 2024 budget, the government said the land audit would deliver 21,000 “affordable and market” dwellings.

Analysis of Homes NSW’s spreadsheet – titled “Land audits for Homes NSW” – by this masthead reveals 128 distinct addresses, with a gross estimated value of at least $1.39 billion. A similar document created by Landcom – dated June 2 this year – lists 297 sites, although a number of these are neighbouring addresses. It has an estimated total site area of 10.6 million square metres.

The documents reveal Homes NSW has undertaken a thorough financial analysis of almost all the sites on its list. Only 24 sites progressed to the second stage of the agency’s due diligence process. Eight were acquired, while Landcom has purchased five sites.

Homes NSW’s spreadsheet includes notes stating Property and Development NSW has removed sites in La Perouse and Campbelltown from the “LA list”, and the “site to be progressed as an open space”.

Each audit site includes an estimate of how many dwellings could be built on the land. These figures range from a handful to several thousand. Landcom chief executive Alex Wendler has previously said that “the largest number” of sites were turned down because they were too small.

The land audit is managed under the Government Property Framework. It states that sites identified as surplus to requirement are subject to a multi-step divestment process: 1) offered to other departments or agencies to see if they can be repurposed; 2) assessed whether sites are suitable for delivering housing; if so, 3) offered to Homes NSW and then Landcom; 4) if it is declined, it is sold on the private market.

That process was reflected in evidence given by Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure deputy secretary Leon Walker during budget estimates last August, saying if identified land was deemed suitable for housing, the site would be offered to both Landcom and Homes NSW.

“If they don’t select it for any reason, then it’s offered to the market,” Walker said.

Treasury policy dictates that these agencies are required to pay the highest valuation, rather than the existing use, for the publicly owned land. This has been criticised for inhibiting the state’s ability to construct affordable, social and public housing.

A car park on Sarah Durack Avenue in Sydney Olympic Park is one of more than a dozen sites on Landcom’s spreadsheet that have already been sold or are listed for auction on the private market. It was listed for sale through Ray White Commercial with expressions of interest closing on July 7.

Landcom’s list includes land now used for public recreation. This includes the 104,270-square-metre, 18-hole Barnwell Park Golf Course in Five Dock, deemed to have an indicative yield of 797 dwellings, and Kogarah High School oval, in the electorate of Premier Chris Minns. About 115 sites are on vacant land, according to the document.

And some of the sites included on Landcom’s spreadsheet are still being used for other public purposes. This includes Hornsby Station, a site of nearly 75,000 square metres, which is described in Landcom’s document as a “railway, train station, carpark, works”.

A spokesman for Transport for NSW said: “Hornsby Station is not surplus to Transport requirements.”

Similarly, 65 Glendale Drive, a heavily vegetated, 23.06 hectare site owned by the Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) in Glendale near Newcastle, appears on both agencies’ lists. Estimated by Property and Development NSW to be worth $203 million, it is the most valuable property considered by Homes NSW.

Yet, a development application submitted by TAHE in 2024 appeared to be still active and progressing as of this month. The planning department was approached for comment.

It raises questions about why sites still being used by the NSW government were given to Landcom to run due diligence on.

A Property and Development NSW spokesman said: “Hornsby Station and Barnwell Golf Course were never declared surplus. These were early stage internal working documents.”

A spokeswoman for Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper said that of the 77 property audit sites announced publicly by the government, five had been acquired by Landcom, eight by Homes NSW, and 26 had been settled or exchanged on the private market.

She did not explain what had been done with the 38 properties unaccounted for, or whether any audit sites had been repurposed for other public purposes.

“The NSW government makes no apologies for tackling the housing crisis by implementing the property audit,” she said. “Vacant sites serve no one, which is why the NSW government investigates future uses for sites using a whole-of-government approach.

“The process provides the flexibility to retain the site for other purposes as circumstance change. This is a sensible approach which allows us to deliver infrastructure such as new schools, police, ambulance or fire stations or road and rail links.”

The property audit has assessed more than 30,000 NSW government-owned lots across the state.

Greens MP Jenny Leong accused the government of flogging off public land “to the higher bidder” regardless of whether the site may be needed down the line. “After more than three years, NSW Labor’s land audit doesn’t appear to have actually delivered a single home,” she said. “Instead, it has functioned as a highly efficient stocktake sale of public land and public assets that even the Liberals hadn’t touched.

“This short-sightedness will cost communities dearly in future when there’s no public land left on which to build public housing, hospitals and schools because it’s all been sold off.”

This masthead has previously revealed only a handful of sites divested by the Minns government have been the subject of development applications.

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