HOUSING All Australians (HAA), a for-purpose organisation helping mobilise private sector resources to address Australia’s housing crisis, has announced Nightingale chief executive Dan McKenna as its own inaugural CEO.
Under his watch, not-for-profit Nightingale’s innovative housing concept of sustainable, community-focused housing developments prioritising social and environmental outcomes alongside financial viability has transformed into a nationally recognised development model that garnered support across the political spectrum.
Up to 20% of Nightingale projects are sold to community housing providers as affordable rentals, with the balance going to owner occupiers. Buyers of apartments must intend to occupy and enter a ballot to become a successful purchaser.
Nightingale and Housing All Australians have already been linked closely. McKenna’s tenure at Nightingale Housing has seen his involvement in demonstrating a proof of concept of HAA’s Progressive Residential Affordability Development Solution (PRADS) model. Nightingale has collaborated with the City of Merri-bek, which implemented HAA’s PRADS model to increase affordable housing from 5% to 15% while maintaining project viability.
“The housing affordability crisis demands innovative solutions that bring together diverse stakeholders across sectors,” McKenna said.
“Having implemented the PRADS model at Nightingale and been across the evolution of the PRADS register which has garnered full industry support, I’ve seen firsthand how an innovation like PRADS can unlock affordable essential worker housing, at scale.
“I agree with HAA’s position that Australia’s housing crisis is too big for government to solve alone. It must actively engage the private sector and the entire existing property eco system. With an additional one million social and affordable homes needed by 2041, Housing All Australians’ approach to catalysing private sector engagement represents a game-changing approach to addressing this national challenge.”
Robert Pradolin, co-founder and the executive director of Housing All Australians, said, “Dan’s successful work at positioning Nightingale as a developer of choice and implementation of the PRADS model demonstrates his ability to translate innovative concepts into practical outcomes.
“His experience in working with local government to create planning value that subsidises affordable housing makes him the ideal leader to help scale the PRADS model nationally.”
As of July this year, PRADS is now searchable on realestate.com.au for essential workers, and HAA is looking to implement the PRADS register in partnership with PEXA in 2025. It is receiving overwhelming support from operators and organisations across the property industry and beyond.
An Aware Super report last year found that a chronic shortage of affordable housing for essential workers located near their workplace in Australia’s capital cities is costing the nation $64 billion.
