We all benefit from a society where everyone can access safe, secure, affordable and appropriate housing.
Developers have been given an opportunity to be part of the housing affordability solution by partnering with community housing providers to deliver affordable and social housing.
This webpage aims to assist developers to understand the community housing industry, and how to reap the benefits of partnering with our member organisations.
Affordable Housing Agreements
The Victorian Government has amended the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to incorporate a new objective and definition of affordable housing. This change is expected to result in an increase in the number of Local Councils who will seek to include an affordable housing contribution as part of planning approval processes for developers.
Community Housing Organisations are highly qualified owners and managers of affordable housing with the skills and capacity to partner with developers to ensure the success of these Affordable Housing Agreements.
Click here to view CHIA Vic’s position paper on AHA’s.
AHA resources
CHIA Vic has teamed with the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) to create a suite of resources for developers, community housing organisations and local government to assist them to negotiate Affordable Housing Agreements.
Community Housing
Benefits of partnering with the growth engine for affordable housing
Victoria has a highly-regulated not-for-profit community housing industry that partners with all levels of government, financiers, land owners, developers and builders to deliver affordable housing.
Several organisations are developers in their own right, delivering large-scale residential projects. Others are experienced in working with developers on projects that include affordable and social housing.
The Community Housing Industry in Victoria includes 10 Housing Associations and 29 Housing Providers that collectively own and manage over 19,000 properties with a combined asset value of over $2.3 billion.
Developers who partner with community housing organisations benefit from our experience in:
- Leveraging and attracting new sources of capital, including maximising our tax-free status
- Negotiating with a Responsible Authority
- Enabling a planning obligation to be met
- Ensuring quality property and tenancy management is in place
- Reporting to governments and investors on project outcomes
As part of one of the first large scale inclusionary zoning projects in Victoria, 150 new affordable homes are going to be available for rent in Melbourne’s north east by 2020.
National not-for-profit housing provider Community Housing Ltd (CHL) has formed a landmark partnership with private developers Alpha Partners to deliver affordable housing in The Village Alphington.
The proposed neighbourhood centre, including retail and a community hub, is to be developed on the former Amcor paper mill site, about 6.5 km from Melbourne’s CBD.
The Development Plan for 2,500 new dwellings with a mix of apartments, townhouses and single family homes, has been approved. The developers committed to include affordable dwellings for moderate income households as a result of the City of Yarra’s ‘inclusionary zoning’ planning application requirements under Section 173.
As part of the partnership, CHL will lease one and two bedroom apartments from the developers at a fixed rent for 10 years that will be subleased to eligible tenants at below 75 per cent market rent. CHL will retain the titles to 10 apartments as part of the agreement.
The primary target tenant group will be essential service workers on moderate incomes who provide key services in the community such as nurses, hospitality workers, teachers and childcare specialists.
City of Melbourne
A amendment for the central city (C270) requires developers to include a public benefit when seeking to increase the scale of their development. Community housing is one of the public benefits available for developers to select.
FAQs
The State Government has defined affordable Housing for the purposes of the Planning and Environment Act as ‘housing, including social housing, that is appropriate for the housing needs of very low, low and moderate income households’.
Find your perfect match
Contact Community Housing Organisations
Aboriginal Housing Victoria Limited
Call Darren Smith on 9403 2100
Baptcare Affordable Housing
Cliff Barclay on 9831 7222
Beyond Housing
Call 02 6055 9015
Common Equity Housing Limited
Call 9208 0808
Community Housing (Vic) Ltd
Call Danny Dracic on 9856 0062
Housing Choices Australia Limited
Call James Henry on 1300 312 447
HousingFirst
Call Aaron Flavell on 0414 343 720
Haven; Home, Safe
Call Blake Hogan on 0417 255 074
Mario Roccisano on 0418 338 979
Launch Housing
Call Jack Panton on 9288 9600
Vere Longmore on 0436 477 616
South Port Community Housing
Call Janet Goodwin on 9696 1128
Unison Housing Limited
Call James King on 9349 0257
Women’s Housing
Call Paul Ryan on 9412 6868
Women’s Property Initiative
Call Natascha Liddell on 9664 7800
Wintringham Housing Ltd
Call Michael Deschepper on 9376 1122
YWCA Housing
Call Grant Divall on 0414 549 908
Additional Resources
Victorian Government Downloads
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning