This report reviews and compares emerging approaches to planning for affordable housing in Australia, with a focus on models being applied in urban renewal contexts in Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney. The report examines the factors that shaped the design and introduction of these models, their effectiveness to date, their integration with other available affordable housing policies, incentives and subsidies, and the potential for them to be made more effective. The research presented here was funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and the City of Sydney Council.

Delivering affordable housing in urban renewal contexts is one of the key urban growth management challenges facing policy makers in Australian cities. As metropolitan planning has increasingly stressed the need to contain population growth within established urban areas at higher densities, infill development and urban renewal have become important vehicles for new housing supply. However, there are some major challenges associated with affordable housing provision in urban renewal contexts. Renewal processes themselves can bring about the displacement of existing residents as lower-cost housing is lost to redevelopment, stimulating or advancing gentrification. In higher value markets, land values and the costs associated with site assembly and remediation can also increase overall development costs, making the delivery of affordable housing more challenging.