What if the government built beautiful homes that people could actually afford to rent or buy?
Last week Greens MP for Griffith, Max Chandler-Mather & I launched our plan for a Federal Public Property Developer – to build 610,000 homes for sale and rent nationwide.
How would it work?
For homes built by the public property developer, rent will be set at 25% of income or 70% of market rent, whichever is lower.
This could save the average renter $319 a week or $16,600 a year.
Under our plan sale prices will be set at only 5% over the cost of construction, rather than prices set by the private property market, which is driven by developer greed.
THIS WOULD SAVE the average first home buyer $249,000 on the price of a market price home.
And 224 of those affordable apartments could be on council owned sites right here in central Coburg.
We would give priority to people with connection to the local area, including:
- Families with children enrolled in local schools
- People who work in key local services such as hospitals, schools and community services
- First Nations community members
And of course, ensuring these homes go to people who doesn’t already own property first.
This is all possible, if Labor wanted to really tackle the housing crisis instead of lining the pockets of property developers.
Rents in Coburg have risen by 41% since the election, and families are being pushed to the brink. Over 30,000 households in Wills are living in housing stress.
The Greens aren’t promising that we can do all of this overnight, but solutions like this are possible. In Coburg these sites have been identified by Merri-bek Council as suitable for affordable housing following community consultation, and are ready to go.
By electing Samantha here in Wills, we can push for developments like this to be actually built.
Want to help make this a reality?
Here’s where you come in – over the next few months we will be holding stalls to get feedback on these designs. Can you help out on our housing volunteer crew? Sign up via the form below, and we’ll give you a call to talk about how you can fight for change.