- Housing affordability in Australia is at a three decade low.
- New South Wales is the least affordable state.
- Hume has secured a block of land in Wyong for 20 affordable and social townhouses.
Hume Community Housing has acquired a 3,160 square metre (sqm) block on Jennings Road in Wyong.
The move will see up to 20 townhouses built, delivering much-needed social and affordable rentals to the Central Coast.
The purchase was made possible due to Hume’s partnership with the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Communities and Justice, which contributed a grant from the Community Housing Innovation Fund (CHIF). This grant scheme encourages community housing providers such as Hume to invest in delivering projects to increase affordable housing supply in key areas of need.
“The Central Coast, like many areas, is struggling with a severe under supply of affordable rental housing,” said Hume CEO, Brad Brathwaite.
“This development aligns perfectly with our commitment to creating thriving communities through access to affordable quality housing.”
Hume will demolish two existing cottages and seek Development Approval to build up to 20 townhouses, available under both affordable and social rental housing programs.
NSW’s unaffordability
Alarmingly, PropTrack has found that housing affordability nationwide is at its worst level in at least three decades, with New South Wales being the least affordable state.
PropTrack Housing Affordability Index by state 2022-23
PropTrack’s Housing Affordability Report also noted that in New South Wales, a median income household in New South Wales could afford just 7% of homes sales in 2022-23, and a low income household with income at the 20th percentile could afford effectively no homes across the state at current interest rates and home prices.
Earlier this year, UNSW housing policy expert, Professor Hal Pawson, suggested that one way to tackle NSW’s housing crisis was to expand the existing social and affordable housing fund, enabling an underpinning of an additional cohort of newly developed homes.
Meeting Wyong’s needs
Official data reveals that the waiting list for public housing has grown by 30% in some areas as the costs of private housing and rent skyrocket across the Coast.
Department of Communities and Justice data has revealed the number of residents seeking public housing in the Wyong area has increased by up to 15% with nearly 2,000 people on the wait list with up to 10 years in wait time.
This is coupled with significant spikes in the cost of housing and rent across the Coast last year, with house prices increasing by 39.3% in Wyong and rents up by 8.9% last year.
Minister for Housing, Rose Jackson, said the development will make a big difference to the lives of Wyong locals.
“The NSW Government is determined to ease the housing crisis, especially for communities like those on the Central Coast where there is a high number of essential workers,” she said.
“People performing vital roles in aged care, hospitals and cleaning should be able to live in a reasonable proximity to their work and communities suffer when they are priced out of the rental market.
“Once complete, these townhouses will provide stable and modern housing for individuals and families in the Wyong area.”
