Plan affordable rental housing

Resources to help with planning affordable housing

The Local Government Housing Kit - Offers guidance on preparing housing strategies along with a wide range of resources, case studies, examples and assistance with assessing feasibility.

The Local Government Housing Kit Database (using 2021 Census data) – Delivers data on housing and lower-income earners by local government area.

Housing snapshots – Details housing needs by region as well as local government area.. The snapshots provide analysis of housing demand, the housing market, housing supply and gaps, with a focus on affordable housing for low and moderate income households.

Rent and Sales Report – Tracks NSW rent and sales trends, updated quarterly.

NSW Social Housing Assistance Commissioning Data Report – Provides insights into applications, tenancies, and private market assistance.

Who can plan and deliver affordable housing

Affordable housing (as a discount to market rent product) generally requires a subsidy or assistance from various levels of Government to make development feasible.

Commonwealth government

The Commonwealth funds affordable housing through initiatives like:

Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator
National Housing Infrastructure Facility
Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF)

Housing Australia also collaborate with governments, investors, developers, and community housing providers.

The National Rental Affordability Scheme will be funded until 2026. More information about NRAS.

NSW Government

NSW government departments are involved in planning for, and delivering, affordable housing. These include:

Homes NSW – We deliver social housing and affordable rental housing programs like the Social and Affordable Housing Fund (SAHF) and Community Housing Innovation Fund (CHIF). We work with the not-for-profit sector, private sector and local government to broker partnerships and deliver affordable housing
Department of Planning and Infrastructure – Facilitates development through planning mechanisms including Inclusionary Zoning, Contribution Schemes, Density Bonuses, and working with local government in the development of housing strategies.
Landcom – Sets affordable housing targets in its developments and is responsible for the build to rent programs for renters in regional NSW and essential workers in metropolitan Sydney.

Local government

Local councils plan and deliver affordable housing by:

creating local housing strategies
offering incentives for affordable housing developments
partnering with community housing providers for innovative housing projects.

Community housing providers

Community housing providers manage or own over 54,000 social and affordable housing properties in NSW. They are responsible for managing affordable housing delivered under the Housing SEPP.

Legislation supporting affordable housing

Providing and maintaining affordable housing is one of the objectives of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

To assist in meeting this objective, the NSW Government developed the State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 (the Housing SEPP), a planning policy that encourages new, and retains existing, affordable housing.

The Housing SEPP facilitates development of affordable and diverse housing and retention of existing affordable rental housing.

Retaining existing affordable housing

The Housing SEPP allows councils to impose levies on developments that reduce low-cost rental housing.

The NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has developed guidelines for retaining existing affordable housing which detail how to implement these provisions, including when and how to impose a levy and what to do with the funds collected.

Payment and transfer of levies collected

The Minister for Planning issued a direction under section 7.33 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 requiring the consent authority, upon receiving the contribution in the form of a levy, to transfer it to the Secretary, NSW Department of Communities and Justice.

These contributions are used to fund community housing providers to develop local affordable housing projects in the area in which they were levied. Homes NSW works with councils to realise affordable housing projects using these funds.

Local councils should:

follow the link here to the Housing SEPP Contributions form DOCX, 43.66 KB, email it to CAH@facs.nsw.gov.au , and Homes NSW will send an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) form and explain the next steps.

And here is the link to the information on the DPHI website about retention of affordable housing which includes the Ministerial Direction

For more information about affordable housing, or if you have a question, contact us at CAH@homes.nsw.gov.au

Housing snapshots

Our Housing Snapshots help local government prepare or update local housing strategies for affordable housing. The Housing Snapshots include a detailed examination of the current:

demand for housing
housing market
housing Supply
gap for each District or Region with a particular emphasis on affordable housing and the needs of lower and moderate income households.

Districts

The graph below demonstrates that Greater Sydney is losing low and moderate income households, despite an overall increase in the total number of households between 2016 and 2021. There has been a significant increase in high income households in Greater Sydney over this time frame. The Rest of NSW has seen a significant increase in low income households between 2016 and 2021 – suggesting that lower income households are leaving Sydney for more affordable regional areas. The Housing Snapshots give insights into these sorts of changes in the Districts within Greater Sydney and in the Regions in the Rest of NSW.

Bar graph showing change of income in total households between 2016 to 2021 — Change in low, moderate and high income and total households - Greater Sydney and rest of NSW - 2016 to 2021

The next graph indicates that it is not low income rental household which are leaving Greater Sydney – as they have increased faster than the population and in spite of a loss of low income households between 2016 and 2021. This implies the need for an increased supply of affordable rental housing. The Housing Snapshots give insights into these changes in the Districts within Greater Sydney and in the Regions in the Rest of NSW.

Greater Sydney

View snapshots:

Regions