Affordable Housing Unit Complex in Wickham NSW

Affordable Housing

What is Affordable Housing?

In Australia, Affordable Housing is managed by charities and community housing providers such as Home in Place.

Affordable Housing is offered at a rebated rent to low income workers, who would otherwise experience housing stress in the private rental market.

Rents in Affordable Housing properties are capped at between 75% and 80% of the assessed market rate for the property in question.

With social housing now almost exclusively reserved for the most vulnerable members of society, affordable housing products have emerged as an alternative for low income workers. The transitional aspect of affordable housing encourages tenants to pursue real property ownership while paying reasonable rent in their present circumstances. This has delivered terrific outcomes, with tenants obtaining private home ownership through this program.

Affordable housing represents approximately 11% of the total Home in Place housing portfolio and is funded by federal and state governments under various programs including the:

  • National Rental Affordability Scheme
  • Building Better Cities
  • Debt Equity Funding
  • Social Housing Growth Fund
  • NSW Government’s Social and Affordable Housing Fund

The portfolio receives additional funding directly from Home in Place through debt finance and leveraging from our asset portfolio.

Affordable Housing Vacancies

Our Affordable housing vacancies are listed with realestate.com.
You can search via region using the links below.

Newcastle Vacancies

Lake Macquarie Vacancies

East Maitland Vacancies

Central Coast Vacancies

Sydney Vacancies

Applying for Affordable Housing

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  • To be eligible for Affordable Housing:

    • You must be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or have a valid visa to reside in Australia.
    • You must have a connection with the area that you are applying for housing in. This could be through work, education, family or long term residency.
    • You are a low-moderate income earner.
    • There is no outstanding debt to Home in Place, Housing NSW, or any other Community Housing provider.
    • You must be earning below the tenant income level relevant to your household type. An up-to-date and extensive list of example household income limits set by the NSW Government can be found here. Income eligibility limits on properties receiving National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) funding are outlined on the DSS website here.

    Household income limits are indexed annually on 1 May in accordance with the NRAS tenant income index.

    Some Affordable Housing Programs have specific eligibility criteria. You will be advised of any additional criteria on enquiry.

  • Affordable housing is available to households within very low, low and moderate income bands.
    Income eligibility limits, or thresholds, are determined by household size and total income.

    In NSW, two median income measures are used to set the eligibility limits:

    • One is for people living in the Sydney and surrounding regions including Central Coast LGA to the north, Blue Mountains LGA to the west and Wollondilly to the south.
    • The other is for people living in the rest of NSW

    The NSW Ministerial Affordable Housing Guidelines, which can be downloaded hereset out the Household Income Eligibility Limits by household composition, income and region.

    Some Affordable Housing Programs have specific eligibility criteria.

  • All Home in Place Affordable Housing vacancies are advertised on realestate.com under the relevant locations.

    Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to attend the scheduled Open Home inspections for each property. During the inspections we can answer any questions you have about the property, discuss your eligibility, and provide you with an application form.

    If you cannot attend a scheduled Open Home inspection, you can call our Customer Call Centre on 1300 333 733. Our friendly team will be able to provide you with more information on the property and the program requirements, and if applicable, email you a copy of the relevant application form.

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