PRADS: affordable home solutions for Victoria’s essential workers

A bold plan to help house cops, nurses and teachers could give them access to a searchable database for affordable housing — and get more homes built for them.

Victorian cops, nurses and teachers could be able to search for affordable rentals intended to support them within six months under a plan to help fight the state’s housing crisis.

The Victorian government is now being called on to support the scheme that would also seek to increase the supply of affordable housing through fast tracked approvals for developers who add the residences to projects.

The Progressive Residential Affordability Development Solution (PRADS) from Housing All Australians has the support of powerful real estate lobby groups including the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Property Council of Australia, Urban Development Institute of Australia, the Housing Institute of Australia and not for profit group National Shelter.

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The Committee for Melbourne, Municipal Association of Victoria and Australian Institute of Architects are also behind it, as are major builders Metricon and Mirvac, and big four bank CBA.

Housing All Australians founder Rob Pradolin said at present essential workers could only find affordable housing options by approaching local community housing providers.

Mr Pradolin noted there was a difference between affordable and social housing, with the former for lower-paid workers and the latter for those with, generally, complex needs.

Melbourne’s high home prices have left many of the city’s most essential workers unable to afford to even rent near where they work.

He said creating a centralised database in Victoria, and similar ones interstate, would simplify key workers’ search for an affordable rental, ensure those homes remained affordable in a decade’s time as well as helping inform national housing policy.

By giving developers access to fast track approvals in return for adding affordable housing to projects, he said it would also help get more homes built to house essential workers.

It would also help to address a currently more than 30,000 residence gap between what experts believe is needed for the nation’s supply of affordable and social housing each year for the next five years, and what is possible under the Housing Australia Future Fund today.

REIV acting chief executive Jacob Caine said the proposal would also allow real estate agents to help manage housing for essential workers, taking pressure off of community housing groups.

A searchable database for essential workers at the core of the proposal would also help government’s to set housing policies.

“For too long, the real estate industry has been sidelined from affordable housing delivery due to misconceptions that affordable housing is synonymous with social housing,” Mr Caine said.

“PRADS will change this by creating a clear framework for essential worker housing that our

members can confidently support and manage, and that governments can have the transparency of oversight of all compliance obligations.”

REA Group chief customer and commercial officer Kul Singh said if implemented the database would be able to correlate with realestate.com.au

Mr Pradolin added that failing to develop more affordable housing could leave nurses, cops, teachers and even other important, but lower paid workers such as baristas travelling long distances to be in the communities they worked in — which could lead to social issues.

“We do need to have these key workers living near to where they work,” he said.

“And we have to be able to see the end of this crisis for people to have hope.”

Housing All Australians founder Robert Pradolin’s solution would take years to reach full effect, but could be up and running within six months.

Respected economist Saul Eslake said the solution was one of many needed to address the housing crisis, and clarifying the distinction between affordable and social housing could also help create more options for workers who couldn’t otherwise afford to live where they work.

With home value growth having significantly outpaced wage rises for decades in Australia, Mr Eslake said there was a risk that some workers faced only being able to afford a home in Melton — but there job was as a nurse at Monash hospital or a police officer in Lillydale.

“And they are rather disconected from the community they are serving, and spendung up to a couple of hours commuting each way,” he said.

Mr Eslake said he also appreciated that the system would ensure those who benefitted from a zoning change or other incentive to build the affordable housing would be required to continue to keep it available as affordable housing — as would others who bought the property subsequently.

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