A total of seven per cent of properties within the Georges River Local Government Area are unoccupied.
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According to the 2021 census, there were 4,070 unoccupied private dwellings out of a total of 58,430 private dwellings.
In a bid to help alleviate the current housing crisis, the council has been asked to compile a report looking at the number of unoccupied residential properties with the LGA and potential methods to encourage the occupation of unoccupied properties.
This could include approaching the owners and managers and asking them to consider placing those properties on the long-term rental market.
The idea was put forward in a motion by Councillor Peter Mahoney at the March 25 council meeting.
"Georges River Council is setting an admirable standard in pulling its weight in meeting its current housing targets and investigating additional and diverse housing," Councillor Mahoney said.
"This motion looks at another avenue, which is to encourage the occupation of vacant properties so they are made available for long-term rental," he said.
"The 2021 Census found that seven per cent of properties within the Georges River LGA were unoccupied, and in January this year, David Burdon, conservation director for the National Trust, asserted that there were nearly 164,000 unoccupied properties across Sydney.
"Shoalhaven City Council undertook a similar operation in 2022 in an effort to free up the many holiday properties in that LGA. I hope that steps can be taken which will lead to the freeing up of as many of these properties as possible which could help alleviate the housing crisis," he said.
Cr Nick Katris said that such a move was out of the council's domain.
"I do agree with what Cr Mahoney is saying but unfortunately I don't think that we as a Local Government body are able to encourage investors (to put their unoccupied properties on the rental market).
"This is called land banking. Overseas interests basically come in and buy a whole lot of units and keep them for a period of three to five years. It's not just residential properties it's also commercial properties. More money is to be made on commercial properties than residential properties. They hold on to them. They reap the capital gains and massive increase in prices and no-one occupies them.
"I think this motion needs to go a step up to the state and federal governments because they can do things.
"The state government can increase land tax on properties that are left vacant. The federal government can go one step further and find out when people do their tax returns what gross returns that have indicated on their tax return. If they say nothing then it means they have done nothing with it."
Instead, Cr Katris suggested the council write to the state and federal governments requesting they explore policies that could be implemented to ensure that overseas interests that engage in land banking are forced to place their unoccupied dwellings on the rental market.
Cr Kathryn Landsberry supported Cr Mahoney's original proposal to report back on the number of unoccupied dwellings in the LGA.
"In order to write to the state and federal governments we need this information," she said.
"There's probably a lot of properties here that haven been land banked but we don't have actual proof of that. We need to look at every option.
"It's actually a human right to have a roof over your head. It's not just an investment decision to land bank and build your wealth portfolio. What sort of society are we looking at if we are just talking about our own personal wealth and people can go and sleep in cars or local parks," she said.
"The information and data we can gather may be very useful in progressing our case too the state and federal government."
The council included an addition to Cr Mahoney's original proposal and asked the council to write to the relevant State and Federal Ministers requesting that they investigate legislative changes to ensure that local and overseas interests are discouraged from land banking and are encouraged to place their unoccupied dwellings onto the long-term rental market.
