A focus on housing
The NSW Government is attempting to make some in-roads into social and affordable housing. We note the $60.0 million to support new Build to Rent trials in the South Coast and Northern Rivers without little detail.
We also note there will be the appointment of a state-first, a NSW Rental Commissioner who will work with Government to design and implement changes to make renting in New South Wales fairer, more affordable, and more secure.
Major in-roads into social and affordable housing include:
- $2.2 billion Housing and Infrastructure Plan which includes $300.0 million reinvested in Landcom to accelerate the construction of 4,697 new homes including 1,409 affordable homes
- $224.0 million Essential Housing Package to deliver better outcomes for public and social housing tenants, deliver more affordable and social housing,
- $79.3 million for Aboriginal Housing – New Supply under the Social Housing Accelerator Agreement
- In addition, the Government will permanently expand the number of social housing dwellings by around 1,500 through the $610.1 million Commonwealth Social Housing Accelerator program.
The budget has also allocated $24.0 million to establish the NSW Building Commission to support high quality housing and protect home buyers from sub-standard buildings.
The delivery of housing will also be leveraged by $9.1 million to assess housing supply opportunities across government-owned sites and $5.6 million for an artificial intelligence pilot to deliver planning system efficiencies.
For the Build to Rent (BTR) trials to address the housing crisis they will need to evaluate if over the short term:
- the correct market segment of people struggling to fund affordable rental properties is successfully targeted
- the trials provide a range of BTR responses within and across residential typologies for a mix of households including family friendly homes whether apartments, attached or detached dwellings
- BTR asset holders have a strong appetite for good design to ensure long term durability, sustainability and liveabilty
and over the longer term,
- create a measurable shift in the market suppliers of private rental housing to a base underpinned by larger scale and institutional investors committed to:
- creating long term vibrant residential communities developments that enhance neighbourhood and precinct character
- provide appropriate amenity sought by household – not horizon pools, but EV charging, safe outdoors spaces, secure bike parking, pet friendly outdoor spaces, safe child recreation spaces,
- bringing affordable family size dwellings to our private rental market for apartments
- and provide valued secure long-term tenancies measured through rates of turnover, reasons for exits and direct tenant surveys of rental stress, wellbeing and satisfaction.
A summary of new spending measures.
The summary contains both identified new capital expenditure in which many members would be interested as business opportunities to be delivered through government procurement. It also contains the above reported of importance to the Institute and members regarding regulation of the built environment and social and affordable housing.
