RESIDENTS have started moving into hundreds of new social housing homes in Melbourne’s Brighton that have been delivered as part of a ground lease model arrangement.
The New Street development has 151 social housing homes, an increase of 19% at the site, in addition to 140 market rental homes.
Under the ground lease model, Homes Victoria in partnership with Housing Australia have leased the land to project partner, Building Communities (Vic) Limited to build, manage and maintain the housing for 40 years. The partnership model – a first for social housing development in Australia – ensures all land will remain in public ownership.
There is a new café, community pavilion, and community garden available for use by residents and the local community at the site. The Victorian government said homes are modern, accessible and energy efficient, and are located close to public transport, jobs, community services and local destinations including Elsternwick Park, Elwood Beach and Glen Huntly Road.
Ground lease model sites in Flemington and Prahran have also been completed and an additional development at Holland Court, Flemington was announced last year to deliver more than 1,000 new homes by late 2026.
Further ground lease model projects were announced late last year, with planning underway at Hampton East, Prahran, Port Melbourne and South Yarra.
“The innovative ground lease model is one of the many ways we are delivering social housing, providing modern and accessible homes for those who need them most,” said Minister for Housing Harriet Shing.
“We are getting on with building more social and affordable homes in areas where Victorians need them most – revitalising communities to make them even better places to live, work and play.”
There were 51,455 new applications for social housing on the Victorian Housing Register in the September quarter, state government data shows.
The waitlist for public housing from priority access over 2022/23 was 18.1 months.
The federal government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) officially kicks off from the beginning of July. The fund aims to deliver 20,000 new social and 10,000 new affordable homes across the country over five years, although in the midst of a national housing crisis and historically low rental market vacancies, critics say it doesn’t go far enough.
The HAFF is accompanied by the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator, which aims to provide aims a further 4,000 social homes nationally. Of that, Victoria receives nearly $500 million with a target of 769 homes.
The Victorian government says its existing $5.3 billion Big Housing Build program will deliver more than 12,000 social and affordable homes.
