The government of New South Wales (NSW) has announced that in the three weeks since it launched the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) it received 96 submissions which if approved would build 40,000 homes in the state.

The HDA was formed to allow large residential schemes to bypass council approval. Instead, the authority judges them on criteria such as density, affordability and auxiliary infrastructure.

Projects qualify if they are worth over US$37m in metropolitan NSW, the equivalent to 100 units, and $19m in regional areas, with developments containing roughly 40 or more homes.

So far 86 expressions of interest have been registered in metropolitan NSW and 11 in rural areas.

Chris Minns, the state premier, said: “For far too long, it has been made harder and harder for people to build homes in NSW, so it is wonderful to see these reforms starting to turn that around.

“Without these major changes that are speeding up the delivery of new homes, Sydney risks becoming a city without a future because it’s simply too expensive to put a roof over your head.”

Submissions can be re-submitted if they are refused.