Vinnies proposes 165 homes in 20-storey Lavender Bay tower

St Vincent de Paul Society Housing Australia has lodged a state significant development application for a 20-storey tower and a separate co-living building at 1-19 Mackenzie Street and 211 Blues Point Road, Lavender Bay. The application, SSD-88702457, remains a proposal: the planning portal shows it undecided as of 22 October 2026. The New South Wales planning portal lists its current status as response to submissions, the stage reached after a public exhibition that drew 141 submissions, meaning the charity must now answer those submissions before any determination is made.

The site covers 5,992 sqm, The Urban Developer reported when the filing surfaced on 2 September 2026, and carries the existing St Francis Xavier church and a former school building. Under the application, the existing residential buildings on the site would be demolished, while the church and former school are retained and adapted. The planning portal describes the proposal as three mixed-use buildings up to 20 storeys, well beyond the site’s existing height controls of 8.5 and 12 metres.

Why it matters

A community housing provider is testing how far the state assessment pathway stretches for a not-for-profit applicant. St Vincent de Paul Society Housing Australia is a charity, not a commercial developer, and the tower it has proposed would reach about 73 metres, roughly six times the site’s 12-metre control, on The Urban Developer’s reading of the filing. That gap between existing control and proposed scale is the whole case the application has to make, since nothing about the site’s zoning today anticipates a tower of this height.

For the charity, the stake is funding. A larger market-apartment component typically cross-subsidises the affordable housing a community housing provider builds alongside it, so the scale the state ultimately allows has a direct bearing on how much affordable housing the project can deliver. At 88 market apartments and 19 affordable apartments, the main tower’s affordable share is about one in six of those units. The Urban Developer reports 77 affordable homes in total once the 58 co-living rooms are counted, close to half of the 165 proposed.

The numbers

The Urban Developer, citing the application, reports 88 market apartments and 19 affordable apartments in the tower, plus a separate co-living building of 58 rooms, for a total of 165 homes across the precinct. Parking is proposed at 118 spaces in a five-storey basement. It puts the estimated cost at more than $288 million. Some exhibition submissions cite different unit counts, so these figures may move.

The planning portal’s attachment list for the application runs to 72 environmental impact statement documents, two requests-for-SEARs documents, nine agency advice submissions and the 141 public submissions lodged during exhibition.

What’s next

St Vincent de Paul Society Housing Australia must now respond to the issues raised during the submissions period before the application can move toward a determination. The planning portal lists no hearing or decision date.

Because the application is a state significant development, the outcome rests with the Minister for Planning or an appointed planning panel, not North Sydney Council. Until a determination is made, the tower, the co-living building and the affordable housing inside them remain proposals, not approved outcomes. If the assessment requires amended plans, a fresh exhibition and a further delay would follow, and the 165-home figure now on file could still change before any decision is made.