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The Lowdown:
Image: NSW Government
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The $1 billion city that doesn’t yet exist has just taken its biggest step forward.
On the edge of Western Sydney, beside a brand-new international airport, Australia’s first new city in 100 years is quietly shifting from concept renders to construction contracts. Now, the first homes, jobs and public spaces are officially locked in.
A newly finalised development agreement between the NSW Government and Plenary has put construction in motion on the first major parcel of Bradfield City. The focus is the city’s inaugural “Superlot”, a 5.7-hectare site beside Bradfield’s First Building, Central Park, and the new Metro station. More than a single precinct, it’s designed to test whether Sydney can grow without forcing another generation into longer commutes and shrinking housing choices. We can’t all live and work around the Sydney CBD.
The precinct will deliver Bradfield’s first 1,400 homes, with at least 10 per cent reserved for affordable housing, alongside a substantial commercial and civic mix. A quarter of the site is earmarked for advanced industries, a university campus, a hotel, essential services such as childcare, retail, and health facilities, and a 1,500-square-metre food and beverage venue overlooking Central Park. The goal is to avoid the familiar trap of housing-first sprawl by embedding work, education and daily life from day one.
Development will roll out in stages, with the next five years focused on what actually makes a city function. Stage One prioritises public space, higher education, childcare, affordable housing and commercial hubs, while generating thousands of construction jobs and injecting momentum into Western Sydney’s economy. By 2026, Plenary will begin the search for a university partner and a major commercial anchor tenant, and lodge State Significant Development Applications for the food precinct and a broader concept plan covering housing, commercial space, and a hotel.
Once complete, Bradfield City is expected to provide 10,000 homes and 20,000 jobs, supported by Western Sydney International Airport and new transport links. The project sits within the NSW Government’s broader push to increase housing supply and employment opportunities across Western Sydney.
If it works, Bradfield shifts Sydney’s centre of gravity west, easing pressure on housing, shortening commutes, and proving that opportunity doesn’t have to funnel through a single CBD. If it doesn’t, it becomes another well-funded experiment. Either way, it matters because Sydney’s future can’t keep orbiting the harbour alone.
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