Login
iscover
UNSW will build an AI-powered data analytics lab to inform future housing policy.
A $1 million grant has been awarded to UNSW Sydney to build a hybrid data facility called the Housing Analytics Lab (HAL).
Industry, academic, government and non-profit actors will work together to establish the lab in South Eveleigh.
“As Australia grapples with housing affordability and supply, academics, government, industry and communities need access to the best available analytics and insights to inform decision-making,” said Professor Chris Pettit, director of the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW.
One of the digital tools offered at HAL will be a database with a map dashboard displaying all planning approvals across Australia, both past and ongoing.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to power a classifier of planning assessments to understand spatial clusters of development activity, and a virtual housing assistant trained to answer big-picture questions about urban planning and affordable housing delivery.
AI will also be used to assess housing supply and demand potentials by LGA.
Meanwhile, government data sharing agreements will enable HAL to provide insights into the supply pipeline of land zoned for future housing, new development-ready greenfield lots, delivery of multi-unit apartments, housing capacity alongside train stations, and the number of empty properties per LGA.
Both current and future insights will be made available via the new data lab.
“Using real-time housing datasets, multiple scenarios powered by big data and machine learning can be rapidly created and compared, allowing decision makers to assess policy options,” said Professor Pettit.
The lab funding, provided by the office of the NSW Chief Scientist, will be available over two years as part of the Commonwealth government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) support program.
NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, stated that “these facilities enable the most advanced research and commercialisation opportunities to happen right here in NSW”.
“These activities are a critical driver for innovation in the state’s economy,” he said.
Professor Claire Annesley, dean of arts, design and architecture at UNSW, stated that the lab “will offer the best modelling and digital solutions to the problems of urban planning”.
“This is a huge win for getting the very latest analytical tools into the hands of decision makers,” she said.
“As a university, we are committed to our research and technology making an impact on society, and the Housing Analytics Lab is exactly the kind of thing we want to be doing.”
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.