170,000 new homes for Sydney UP to 171,000 homes will be built across Sydney and almost 90,000 jobs created under a plan to rezone and develop new and existing suburbs, the NSW government says. Announcing the plan in the northwest suburb of Box Hill on Saturday, Premier Barry O'Farrell said the government had identified areas where new suburbs could be built and existing suburbs redeveloped to accommodate 111,700 new homes. Landowners were being consulted to secure space for another 60,000 homes, Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said. Mr O'Farrell said the developments would resolve several major concerns of Sydneysiders, and help the city cope with an expected population increase of 1.3 million people over the next 20 years. This is about ensuring that people have jobs closer to their homes. It's about better balancing the needs of this city," he said. We want to make home ownership, particularly the ownership of a backyard, a reality again. Much of the development will be around the North West Rail Link project, with eight new train stations, business and industrial parks and tens of thousands of homes to be built between Cherrybrook and Cudgegong Road, northwest of Rouse Hill. This would bring about 49,500 jobs to the area, Mr O'Farrell said. The plan also includes major developments around Leppington and Austral in Sydney's southwest. Mr Hazzard said 20,000 jobs and 13,000 homes would be created in these areas. Almost half a billion dollars would be spent on road, water and sewerage infrastructure in northwest and southwest Sydney. Two types of areas would be developed, greenfield sites where homes would be built on paddocks in outer Sydney, and urban activation areas, where the government hoped to work with local councils to increase living density in existing suburbs. To sweeten the deal for councils, each would be able to access part of a $50 million funding pool to upgrade local parks and community facilities, Mr Hazzard said. Epping, North Ryde, Macquarie Park, Wentworth Point, Homebush, Randwick, Mascot and Anzac Parade between Maroubra and Phillip Bay have been earmarked as urban activation areas. Mr O'Farrell said construction of infrastructure and housing would take place over 20 years, but he expected the first houses to be built by 2014.