Could clubs hold key to housing breakthrough?: Wests launches plans for 192 homes at NEX site

Newcastle's Western Suburbs Leagues Club has taken the next steps towards its redevelopment of the Newcastle Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Wests Group has lodged a pre-development application for its 192-dwelling shop-top housing project on land at King and Union streets, Newcastle West.

The step comes as a new national report identifies registered clubs as an overlooked source of land for the housing crisis.

The application, submitted to the state government on July 30, covers four lots spanning 8129 square metres at 309 King Street and 34-38 Union Street.

It proposes a mixed-use development combining shop-top housing with ground-floor commercial space, of which 10 per cent, or 20 dwellings, would be affordable housing.

The project would create 192 dwellings on 18,668 square metres of gross floor area, with capacity for 300 occupants.

The application estimates the project would create 200 construction jobs and 10 ongoing operational jobs.

The site was declared a State Significant Development in November last year.

The pre-development application confirms the project is proceeding through that fast-tracked assessment route.

In 2019, Wests announced $160 million plans for the adjacent 6600-square metre car park land at 124-126 Bull Street. That project has 281 apartments spread across two towers.

The towers project development was approved in March 2021 before the site was sold for an undisclosed amount to GWH in 2022.

The Newcastle lodgement comes as ClubsNSW and the McKell Institute release modelling arguing that registered clubs in NSW were sitting on some of the state's most underused development opportunities.

The McKell Institute report, which models more than 1000 registered clubs (including golf, bowling, RSL and leagues clubs), found 14,000 new homes could be built on club land, while clubs continued to operate.

The report also said this figure could rise to 38,000 homes if the state government reformed planning laws.

McKell Institute's head of policy, Ed Cavanough, said the opportunity had been "staring the government in the face".

"NSW is not building homes at the rate necessary, and our modelling shows some of the best land in the state is hiding in plain sight," Mr Cavanough said.

"The land held by community clubs is at the heart of our suburbs and towns near stations, near shops and near the services people rely on. And almost none of it has been counted in the housing conversation until now."

ClubsNSW's chief executive, Rebecca Riant, said the sector had a proven record delivering community infrastructure, and was ready to help address the housing shortage.

"Once upon a time, clubs offered members affordable meals and live entertainment," she said.

"Over the years, the needs of members have changed, and clubs have evolved their offerings as a result - today, they provide everything from health and wellbeing services to childcare and seniors living. Housing development is simply a natural progression of the club model."

The report makes three recommendations to government: extending the Housing Delivery Authority fast-track pathway so clubs can build general housing rather than only seniors housing, with rezoning assessed at the same time as the development application; a government-funded advisory service, potentially run through Landcom, to help volunteer club boards navigate development; and proportionate relief from levies and contributions for clubs that retain community facilities on site.

Mr Cavanough said the changes could cut approval times on club land from between three and five years down to 12 to 18 months, pointing to Victoria and Queensland as states that had already established faster approval paths.

"There is zero reason a club in Sydney should wait the better part of a decade for an approval that a comparable site in Melbourne can secure in months," he said.

The Hunter already had an example of a club completing this kind of project.

In Port Stephens, Soldiers Point Bowling Club last November finished stage two of its Greenside seniors living development, delivering 52 apartments on surplus land behind the club.

The project started in 2004 and received development approval in 2014, with stage one's 26 apartments completed in 2016.

Stage two was delayed after its original builder went into liquidation in 2024, before a new contractor finished the job.

A third stage of 36 apartments is planned, which would bring the total development to 88 units.

The Wests application is still at the pre-development stage, with a full State Significant Development application and environmental impact statement yet to be lodged.