Lendlease, the latest advocate for Build to Rent developments in Australia, has called on the NSW Government to make it law for all new projects to contain at least 30 per cent affordable, social and Build to Rent homes.

“We believe that – we’ll call it 30%  – should be allocated to diverse uses of housing, so social, affordable and build-to-rent housing, and really create a requirement for a mix of housing on all the new developments,” Lendlease’s managing director of development Tom McKellar told the Committee for Sydney’s Sydney Summit last Monday.

“The first [thing] is setting measurable targets around the delivery of social and affordable housing in any new development project ... we have said 30% would be a great number to start with.”

Tom said Lendlease’s residential projects in the UK typically included between 30 and 50% affordable housing.

“In precincts we’re doing across our portfolio internationally, we often use a rule of thirds – a third is social [or] affordable, a third is build to rent and a third is market housing,” he added.

The NSW election is set for 25 March and both major parties have sat a 30% figure for development of social housing on government-owned land.

On 30 January, Lendlease announced it has struck a deal with QuadReal Property Group to deliver their first Build to Rent residential building, with 443 apartments over 37 levels, at Brisbane Showgrounds.