Housing supply and affordability are leading public policy priorities in Australia. Home ownership is declining, particularly among younger people and lower-income households, and over a third of Australians now rent their homes. The result is a fast-growing population of ‘forever renters’.
A project led by Caitlin McGee and Gordon Noble of UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures, supported by an APPI Policy Challenge Grant, presents a new model of home ownership for Australia to buck this trend. This project consulted with community and cooperative housing providers, investors, developers, and policymakers at all levels of government to outline detailed plans and practical steps forward.
Build-to-rent housing, built for long-term rental rather than sale, is seen as one way to address Australia’s housing shortfall. While it is still in its infancy in Australia, the NSW Government has an opportunity to influence development models to enable residents to acquire ownership stakes over time. This would enable an equitable pathway to home ownership.
Caitlin McGee notes, “The build-to-rent-to-own model would give a growing number of Australians – who would otherwise be locked out of the housing market – the opportunity to access the benefits of home ownership. This is a significant opportunity for NSW, which currently suffers from the least affordable housing of any Australian state.”
“The current housing crisis is undermining social cohesion and economic prosperity. Build-to-rent-to-own housing could be a gamechanger in addressing intergenerational equity and economic inequality,” added co-author Gordon Noble.
The report offers three key policy opportunities for the NSW Government to advance new ownership models: developing common guidelines for a build-to-rent-to-own scheme, supporting pilots in cities and regions, and establishing a build-to-rent-to-own working group for NSW.
Jordan Ward, Head of Economic Policy at the Australian Public Policy Institute, “Housing remains a top concern for policymakers in New South Wales and Australia at large, and this research provides a blueprint for reimagining home ownership. This project encapsulates the mission of the APPI grants program: bringing university experts, policymakers, industry and community together to surface new ideas to address critical challenges facing Australia.”
