The recent landmark decisions by Brisbane City Council (BCC) and City of Moreton Bay Council (CMBC) to wave infrastructure charges for community housing providers are a game changer. It will directly help us, and other social and affordable housing developers, to bring forward the supply of more vital projects. 

Incentivising investment in new social and affordable housing supply is crucial to address the unmet housing need across our communities. It is incredibly challenging to make new developments feasible, and every lever – across every level of government – must be triggered to untangle the web and ultimately deliver more new homes, faster. 

Waving infrastructure charges for community housing isn’t a silver bullet- but it does remove a large barrier to project viability. In real terms, BCC’s Housing Supply Action Plan will save BHC $2 million in fees across our next three projects alone. These substantial savings will be reinvested towards building more new homes across the city – where more than 8,000 people are currently in need of social housing.  

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Before COVID-19, Australia’s affordable and social housing system was in a perilous state, with rising homelessness, increasing demand for a decreasing number of affordable homes, and housing stress for renters surging.

Now that COVID is upon us, we have all seen the critical importance of having a safe, secure place to call home. To be able to self-isolate, to work from home and to home-school our kids. Our homes have always been important, but they have never been such a fundamentally essential part of our daily existence, and our future, as they are right now.

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Social and affordable housing construction could lead Australia out of recession and into recovery post COVID-19. Jingeri, one of our award winning Queensland developments, challenges perceptions about housing for people living with a disability, and has been hailed as an example of what can be achieved with continued investment in new affordable housing supply.

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I recently spoke at the launch of Brisbane’s City Council’s ‘A City for Everyone: Inclusive Brisbane’.   The plan outlines the Council’s commitment to ensuring that Brisbane is a place ‘where everyone feels like they belong’, a vision I strongly support.

In my address, I shared the story of Joe, a BHC resident whose story shows so clearly not only the value of inclusive design in affordable housing, but also the importance of a city that is ready to welcome its residents to participate fully in all aspects of city life.
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Last night we celebrated the first birthday of Elevate Residential, BHC’s fully licensed not for profit real estate agency. We are extremely proud of the Elevate team and the business they have built over the last year. Offering Brisbane property owners the very best property management and sales services, Elevate has one big difference to mainstream real estate agencies- 100% of its profits are given to BHC to help us deliver more homes and better outcomes for people in housing need across Brisbane.

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Under the NDIS, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding is forecast to assist 28,000 Australians with their specialist housing needs by the time the scheme is fully rolled out in 2020. SDA has been specifically developed for individuals who live with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs, and this cohort represents just 6% of those who will access the NDIS. SDA has, rightfully so, been widely celebrated and welcomed by the disability and housing sectors as a desperately needed program. This is true despite a series of early implementation speed bumps and policy positions throwing a blanket over the confidence of both providers and participants seeking to enter the SDA marketplace. Reassuringly, these are issues which seem closer to being resolved as the scheme continues its roll out.

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On Tuesday the 2^nd of April, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down a budget that I had hoped I would be describing after the event as encouraging, or even catalysing, action to increase Australia’s supply of affordable and social housing. Unfortunately this was not that budget.

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