Housing affordability and diversity

We embrace the challenges that limit housing diversity and affordability with projects that demonstrate innovative delivery approaches for communities.

We are cultivating a comprehensive and workable range of development models to increase housing affordability options for people on low to moderate incomes. This includes households caught between social housing and market rental housing that are under housing stress.

Our approach is driven by innovation and partnering with like-minded councils, Community Housing Providers and development partners.

We create pathways through this new landscape by sharing and learning with others and have appointed a Reference Panel of external industry specialists to support us.

Our Housing Affordability and Diversity industry event in November 2019 supported productive and exciting conversations across council, community housing and industry stakeholders, and the opportunities to work together to support housing affordability and diversity solutions.

Our Schofields project is part of this innovation and will showcase typologies that reflect the changing needs of diverse communities including single people, retirees, couples with and without children, extended families and downsizers.

Its location in Sydney’s northwest makes the Schofields project ideal to demonstrate the need for more liveable green streets that address the climatic effects of urban heat island. It will see an increase in the tree canopy compared with traditional developments.

The project also seeks to reinvent the road reserve with a focus on verges and landscaping that provides a cool, green and comfortable streetscape creating places for informal social interactions and incidental play. These become places where communities engage, are socially connected and gain a greater sense of belonging.

At Macarthur Heights affordability is being considered in two ways. Diverse lots sizes and smaller lots offer affordability and diversity. Our Sustainability Rebate incentivises residents to build sustainable new homes. The rebate is designed to be a market-based lever to lower emissions and improve the cost of living in established communities, while driving sales.

Schofields and Macarthur Heights demonstrates how we continue to innovate and work to unlock opportunities to drive housing affordability and diversity.