THE 40,000 social and affordable homes that would be built through the Commonwealth’s National Housing Accord and Housing Australia Future Fund over the next five years will create an additional $4.4 billion worth of wider benefit across four decades, according to an Australia-first calculator.
The SIGMAH calculator (social infrastructure and green measures for affordable housing) was developed by Swinburne University’s associate professor Christian Nygaard (Centre for Urban Transitions) and Dr Trevor Kollmann (Centre for Transformative Innovation). Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation was the major donor to the calculator while the federal government’s National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation provided a capacity grant.
The $4.4 billion figure is over and above the appreciating value of the underlying assets, according to the calculator. Once constructed, the dwellings built will deliver around $16.2 billion in cost-of-living relief, primarily through lower rental costs compared to equivalent rentals in the private sector.
The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund will deliver 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes in the fund’s first five years, including 4,000 homes for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence or older women at risk of homelessness. The National Housing Accord target was upped in August by 200,000 to 1.2 million dwellings over five years.
Dr Nygaard said, “The evidence shows that secure, appropriate and affordable housing is a centrepiece of a healthy community”.
“Rather than simply assert that, we wanted to quantify it. We strived to provide a tool that will provide the evidence base for housing solutions that foster social stability, well-being and environmental progress.”
The calculator aims to provide an understanding of how much less public expenditure a government will incur from areas such as health, policing, and community services by making homes available to those who need them, and estimates private benefits such as higher consumption, income and educational attainment. It also provides monetary estimates of greenhouse gas and environmental benefits from provision of green spaces, dwelling designs and access to transport options and measures the dollar value of lower CO2 estimates due to the energy performance of new dwellings.
Community Housing Industry Association CEO, Wendy Hayhurst, said the world-first initiative was powerful and innovative.
“For the first time we can quantify the transformative impact social and affordable housing has, not just for the individual but for society more broadly.
“Everybody wants to create resilient, sustainable communities. The SIGMAH calculator will provide the evidence base builders, policymakers, and community housing organisations need to recognize the broad and deep benefits of social and affordable housing. This is the data we need to build a more inclusive, clean energy future.”
The Senate finally passed Labor’s signature $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund legislation in September after months of negotiations. The government clinched the Greens’ vote after committing an additional $1 billion for public and community housing, although the Greens failed to secure their sought-after national rent freeze.
Pressure from the Greens had already wrung out an additional $2 billion from the federal government that would go directly to states and territories within weeks to deliver new social and community housing, and guaranteeing a floor for annual spending by the HAFF, as Labor sought to pass the legislation ahead of the parliament’s winter recess.
