New ways to fund affordable housing
Market-orientated solutions are promoted in the Property Council’s submission to the Federal Affordable Housing Working Group Issues Paper looking at innovative financing for affordable housing.
It recognises that the challenge of delivering more housing, including at sub-market or affordable rates, or through public and social housing, is one that the constrained balance sheets of state and federal governments cannot meet alone.
The submission presents potential solutions that will prompt institutional investment and deliver affordable housing at scale by overhauling tax and regulatory settings. It also ties in use of a model based on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which is currently used in the USA.
It spells out how the risks and returns for the private sector need to be market-based and acceptable relative to returns from other investment classes – and how government can help close the gap.
The submission covers three other major areas:
- government land banks, and asset recycling and housing finance initiatives across several states, have potential to reinforce the delivery of affordable housing
- governments need to resist reaching for clumsy and counter-productive solutions like inclusionary zoning on private land
- broader planning reform is urgently needed to improve land supply and affordability across the board.
The full submission can be downloaded below.