When seven adjoining state-owned lots in Seaforth sold at public auction last year for up to $2.6 million each, the sites were among those identified by the NSW land audit as suitable for housing delivery. Months later, six of the seven sites reportedly have no development application on record.
Read: Seaforth ‘Wedding Cake’ Residence Up For Grabs After Four Decades
The Seaforth lots are among 48 state-owned sites divested by NSW since April 2025, netting the state more than $90 million in revenue. The sites were identified as surplus land through the NSW land audit, a program designed to unlock unused or underutilised public property for housing. An analysis of property records found that across all 48 divested sites, only five development applications have been lodged in total.
The single DA tied to Seaforth was submitted by developer MD Living for one property, covering a five-bedroom residence and swimming pool, valued at $2.7 million. The remaining six lots have no recorded development application.
How the auction process works
Sites identified through the land audit are offered first to state developers Homes NSW and Landcom before being listed on the private market. Properties sold at public auction carry no requirement for buyers to lodge a development application within a defined timeframe, nor is there any obligation to include affordable housing in any future development.
Sites sold by private treaty are subject to stricter conditions, typically requiring a DA within nine months and substantial commencement of construction within two years. Of the 48 divested sites, only two were sold by private treaty.
The Seaforth lots were sold at public auction and are not subject to those conditions.
What the original policy intended
When the land audit was announced in 2023, the policy included a requirement for 30 per cent of homes on identified sites to be affordable. That requirement was not carried over after Premier Chris Minns announced a $6.6 billion social and affordable housing package in 2024, with the program reoriented around a target of 30,000 homes.
A university professor has argued that selling public land to private buyers represents a missed opportunity, given that state development agencies could have built on the sites directly rather than transferring them to the private market.
A NSW Labor spokesman noted the audit had identified sites capable of delivering approximately 11,400 homes, including 1,500 in Chatswood and more than 2,000 in Rydalmere, and said Homes NSW had delivered 3,500 homes in the current term of office.
Greens housing spokeswoman Jenny Leong questioned the program’s direction, asking why vacant public land was being sold rather than developed, and why existing publicly owned homes were not being put to use to address the housing shortfall.
Read: Seaforth’s $6.75M Home Sat Empty for Four Years – Now for Sale
Six of the 48 sites changed hands in the week prior to the property records analysis, and nearly half were sold since mid-June 2025. The source analysis noted the six most recent sales were too recent to have a DA lodged. Nine of the 48 properties were sold more than a year ago.
Published 29-April-2026
