Social and affordable housing

Social and affordable housing is rental housing for members of the community who cannot meet their housing needs in the general market.

Affordable housing is for very low to moderate income households. The meaning of very low to moderate incomes is explained in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 (Housing SEPP).

Generally speaking, affordable housing is priced so that a household is spending no more than a certain amount of its income on rent. This helps to ensure that the household has enough money for other essentials such as food, medicine, clothing and transport.

NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) is responsible for the State’s social housing portfolio. Under the Housing SEPP, social housing can also be developed by:

• registered community housing providers
• the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) or an Aboriginal housing organisation registered under the Aboriginal Housing Act 1998
• a local government authority that provides affordable housing
• a not-for-profit organisation that is a direct provider of rental housing to tenants

Government agency social and affordable housing updates

On 14 December 2023, the NSW Government implemented reforms to enable state housing agencies to deliver projects more efficiently, including:

• a new state significant development (SSD) pathway for the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) and the AHO where these agencies are seeking to deliver residential developments of over 75 homes
• Landcom also benefits from this SSD pathway where the development includes at least 50% affordable housing
• LAHC, the AHO and Landcom are now able to self-assess social and affordable developments of up to 75 homes, including residential flat buildings up to 11 m in height where the land use is permissible
• the minimum lot size for dual occupancies being delivered as complying development by LAHC, AHO and community housing providers (CHPs)/Aboriginal Community Housing Providers has been reduced to 400 m 2 under the Low Rise Housing Diversity Code, making more land available for this type of development.

Registrar of Community Housing

The Registrar of Community Housing is responsible for implementing the National Regulatory System for Community Housing in New South Wales. This involves registering, monitoring and regulating community housing providers. Community housing providers are non-government organisations which provide housing for people on very low, low and moderate incomes.

Community housing providers are the responsible for the management of affordable housing delivered under the Housing SEPP.