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A new program launched by the NSW government aims to offer key workers access to hundreds of homes across four local government areas (LGAs).
Under the Affordable Housing Pilot Program, 300 new and affordable properties will be available to key workers. The scheme, which will be rolled out across NSW government-owned rail precincts, allocates surplus land for new homes in the Bayside, Blacktown, inner west, and Cumberland LGAs.
Rob Stokes, Minister for Infrastructure, Cities, and Active Transport, explained the program would utilise previously unused space to relieve pressure from families.
He expressed his belief that whether it be cleaners, or café workers, or any other crucial form of employment, “the people who keep our city functioning should not have to travel more than an hour to get to and from work”.
The motivating factor behind this innovative new model is to “empower stakeholders, such as community housing providers, to do their work without the barrier of having to raise large amounts of capital for the purchase of land”.
Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) chief executive offer Benedicte Colin said the organisation — whose remit as the owner of an extensive portfolio of rail networks across the state, which includes tracks, trains, stations, and certain land surrounding stations — seeks providers to partner with to deliver the program.
“This is exactly the type of innovative program TAHE was set up to do,” she said.
“As NSW grows, TAHE can reimagine its land holdings to deliver better social and economic outcomes for the community.
“Collaboration between government land owners, combined with the innovation of the private sector, can help develop solutions to the complex problem of housing affordability.”
Registrations are now open to deliver the first tranches of homes at sites in the Bayside, Blacktown, inner west, and Cumberland LGAs, with future tranches of the program to deliver additional affordable homes across the six cities and regional communities in NSW.
The scheme is the second such scheme implemented by the Perrottet government, aiming to assist key workers into home ownership after it was announced that a shared equity scheme for key workers, single parents, and citizens aged over 50 had been introduced into Parliament.
The program aims to stimulate home ownership within these stakeholder groups and minimise the burden of affordability by providing any parties utilising the scheme to place a 2 per cent deposit on a home while the government is allowed to make a “maximum equity contribution for 40 per cent for a new home and 30 per cent for an established home”.
