Building back bigger and better

In September this year, we were awarded $47 million to build more than 150 new homes for people in need in the first funding round of the State Government’s historic $5.3 billion Big Housing Build.

Two-thirds of these homes will be built in regional Victoria, including Bendigo, Ballarat, Horsham, and Tarneit. The rest will be built in Werribee and Preston.

We will contribute $12 million towards the construction of these properties, with building works expected to start before the end of this year.

The Big Housing Build is the largest-ever investment in social and affordable housing and a once-in-ageneration opportunity to change people’s lives for the better forever. More than 12,000 new homes will be built throughout Victoria over the next four years.

Overseen by new agency Homes Victoria, the Big Housing Build will boost the state’s social housing supply by 10 per cent and provide a stable foundation for Aboriginal Victorians, people living with mental illness, pensioners, people with disability, family violence victims, and single-parent families to find their feet.

The new homes will also meet 7-star energy efficiency standards, making them more comfortable during summer and winter and delivering savings on people’s power bills.

As a trusted delivery partner of government, community housing organisations like us will share in $1.38 billion of the funding to develop 4200 new social housing homes and manage 4000 more to be built on government land or be spot purchased by the government.

The next funding round, announced in October, will focus on regional Victoria as part of the Big Housing Build’s minimum investment guarantee of 25 per cent ($1.25 billion) of the total program.

We have been working closely with a range of local governments, developers, buildings, numerous community organisations to develop proposals that will deliver more social and affordable housing where it is needed with integrated wrap-around supports to maximise the social and economic benefits.