The purpose of this paper is to support more in depth and informed discussion of housing vacancy and how it could be addressed in New South Wales (NSW). The paper sets out a typology of vacant housing which is applied to four sources of NSW vacant housing data to explore vacancy in NSW. Vacant housing can be divided into two broad groups according to the length of vacancy: short-term vacancies (less than six months) and long-term vacancies (six or more months).

A range of policy responses to long-term vacant housing are found across international jurisdictions. The policies summarised in this paper include monitoring, vacant housing strategies, rental agreements, tax incentives, vacant housing taxes, and compulsory requisition or purchase. Case studies and research findings are included where available. The paper ends with an overview of relevant NSW parliamentary and government developments.

Key points

• The total amount of short and long-term vacant housing in NSW was estimated to be 298,510 in 2021.
• The question of whether housing vacancy could be considered problematic depends in part on the reasons for the vacancy.
• Both ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ policy responses are being used around the world to deal with long-term vacant housing.
• Vacant property taxes have been established in 27 jurisdictions.