Get comfortable with vertical housing, NSW premier says

Sydney is on the way up, with the NSW premier calling for an end to the urban sprawl and a shift to more medium and high-rise housing.

In the face of rising anti-development sentiment in the inner suburbs, Premier Chris Minns says the city of 5.2m people must rebalance where it builds new homes.

That means more focus on homes along transport corridors and near job precincts.

"We have to get more comfortable with the idea of going up," he told the Sydney 2050 Summit on Monday.

"Apartment approvals are at their lowest since 2014, at the exact same time as Australia has a housing crisis."

In a message to anti-development not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) groups, the premier said higher development would help protect green and open spaces while allowing young people a chance to feel a part of the city's next story.

"Sydney cannot grow by adding another street in the western fringe ... every other week - you just can't do that," he said.

"The reason for that is you have to stretch social infrastructure over a bigger and bigger plane.

"That's not how London, New York, Barcelona or Paris (do it)."

Failing to provide that chance through affordable housing would have devastating economic and cultural impacts, he said.

"We don't see the mayor of New York saying 'Manhattan is full, we can't have any more buildings, we're done, we'll have to build in Hoboken (New Jersey)," Mr Minns said.

"Have faith that if we get the planning processes in place and we get world-class developers and planners in Sydney that look at Sydney in its totality, we can build beautiful cities with cutting-edge design."

It comes as the premier orders his ministers to identify what land held by their departments can be repurposed for housing.

That public land, if developed, would be required to have a minimum of 30 per cent set aside for "social, affordable and inclusive housing", Mr Minns said, comparing it to the City of Sydney's 20-per-cent target for development on private land.

The Community Housing Industry Association NSW said it is "absolutely critical" that a significant portion of rezoned land is used to build social and affordable housing.

"That is the key to confronting a housing crisis which is having its most severe impacts on our state's most vulnerable people," the association's policy head Caitlin McDowell said.

The Urban Development Institute of Australia welcomed the move to tackle the housing supply crisis by rezoning surplus public land for residential, saying it could lead to tens of thousands of new homes.

More than 58,000 families and individuals are on the social housing waitlist in NSW, with some told they'll be waiting until at least 2033.

Rent in all capital cities is up 11.7 per cent but in Sydney it has spiked by 13.1 per cent in the past 12 months according to CoreLogic data for April.

The average price paid by a Sydney renter for their home is $711 a week.