THE private sector is not prepared to wait for the government when it comes to unlocking affordable housing supply and management, according to the creator of a digital assessment tool that has been described as a “game changer” by one of Australia’s most innovative housing providers.
Robert Pradolin, a former Frasers Property Australia general manager and co-founder and director of Housing All Australians (HAA), a national private sector “for purpose” organisation and registered charity, has in collaboration with PEXA engineered Australia’s first digital Affordable Housing Register (AHR).
With input from local government and the property industry, the AHR will serve as a centralised platform and repository for recording all affordable housing commitments, while providing governments with the ability to transparently monitor the compliance of all stakeholders through the process.
The register ensures that developers, investors, property owners and tenants uphold their obligations, such as the committed period of below-market rent, guaranteeing the long-term affordability and integrity of the housing created.
“We’ve had good discussions with government, but given we’re not prepared to wait for them,” Pradolin told Australian Property Journal.
“Those discussions are simmering away and hopefully they’ll come on board once they see all the risks are mitigated. Governments don’t want to take any risks.
“We have to be on the front foot showing how this can actually happen, how this can help Australia.”
The property industry and government have been looking at solutions to solve the housing and homelessness crisis that has been driven by a huge mismatch between supply and demand across the country. It has forced vacancies to historic lows, driving rents up, and stretched affordability in the housing market, making housing increasingly difficult to access.
“Affordable housing at the moment is all funded by government or philanthropy, and philanthropy is never going to be a solution – it has to be a long-term play,” Pradolin said.
“So we need to unlock private sector capital to drive affordable housing. This housing crisis is too big for government to solve on its own And we, the private sector, have to innovate.”
He noted a review by the NHFIC in 2021 that found there would be a $290 billion shortfall in investment in public and affordable housing over the next 20 years.
“There’s no way the government can fund that unless they engage the private sector,” Pradolin said.
The AHR has already won the support of the Commonwealth Bank, local council representative body Municipal Association for Victoria, Property Council of Australia, Urban Development Institute of Victoria and Urban Development Institute of Australia, Aware Super, build-to-rent companies Home and Local, Australian Institute of Architects, Committee for Sydney, Committee for Melbourne, SGS Economics and Planning, and the Real Estate Institute Victoria.
Pradolin is in conversation with other industry bodies and companies about the AHR.
“In terms of the AHR, there is enough there to say this is in the national interest, it’ll unlock private sector capital, and find an alternative funding source for government.
“You can sell this affordable home to someone anywhere in the world, because then you’re always going to be monitoring compliance on the register. In my view, this will disrupt the whole sector. Because once you’re preparing a transparent oversight of the use of any discretion by local government, federal or state, you don’t need to be a community housing provider (CHP) to provide affordable housing.
“If you accept that the AHR provides transparency, oversight and governance to the use of any government funds – let’s take Housing Australia – then you can get a Frasers, for argument’s sake, saying we’re going to do all-affordable housing, the federal government will top up the difference so it’s at market rent, and we’ll make sure we monitor all the rentals to make sure that they are eligible people through the housing register, because we trust it.
“You’ve just unlocked the system from just the CHPs. Because as much as I love the CHPs, if we’re wanting to solve a $290 billion issue through a small section of the marketplace, we will never solve it.”
Dan McKenna, CEO of non-profit organisation Nightingale Housing which delivers sustainable and affordable housing, described the AHR to Australian Property Journal as a “game changer”.
“It just unlocks so much potential in this market, where we’re currently delivering percentages of affordable housing in our buildings and we consistently come up against the same roadblocks with local councils and different bodies asking, “How long is this going to be affordable for?”, “Who is it going to?”, “What happens if they sell it?”, “How do we know?”, which case-by-case we can and do answer, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of communication between local government all across the country.
“So the technology exists and the idea is really just to have it all pulled in one place to enable more traditional investment and developers to be able to come in and deliver significant portions of affordable housing and it makes everything much more seamless.”
Pradolin’s Housing All Australians and PEXA are also working on an assessment tool that could be used to maximise affordable housing in build-to-rent projects.
Pradolin appears in this week’s episode of Charter Keck Cramer’s Precisely Property podcast talking about the Affordable Housing Register.
