ANDREW CHARLTON, MEMBER FOR PARRAMATTA:
Well, welcome everybody. It’s fantastic to be here with the Minister for Housing and Small Business to discuss this project. Parramatta is a fast growing and dynamic city, and that of course, like many parts of Australia, brings challenges in the housing market. Only 45 per cent of people in Parramatta own their home, compared to 66 per cent of people nationally, and 52 per cent of people in Parramatta are renters and they’re facing skyrocketing rents right across the city. Rents over the last year are up 11 per cent in North Rocks, 14 per cent in North Parramatta and 25 per cent in Dundas. So that’s why today’s project is really important to increase the supply of housing here in Parramatta and to create affordable housing in Parramatta. And up to 400 new dwellings is a significant step along the pathway to creating that new supply and is very welcome, and I’d like to thank all the partners in this project for putting it together. And with that, I’ll hand over to the Minister.
JULIE COLLINS:
Thanks, Andrew. Can I thank Peter for the warm acknowledgement of country. It’s great to be here with the local member, with Andrew, the Member for Parramatta here in Parramatta today. But it’s also great to be here with the partners in this project. With Fouad from Deicorp, with Scott from St George Community Housing, and Nathan from our National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, and Antoine from AXA. It’s terrific to see this partnership. What we’re talking about here is a public-private partnership to deliver more affordable homes here in Parramatta.
This is just an example of what we’re hoping to do as a Federal Government. This is an example of why we’re unlocking the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, with up to $575 million available from today to invest in more social and affordable homes right across the country. It’s why we’re developing the Housing Australia Future Fund, $10 billion, for more social and affordable homes right across the country. So that we can have more examples of this. So that we can get more homes on the ground, more quickly. And of course the National Housing Accord. Later this morning I’ll be sitting down with the Treasurer, with other institutional investors, right around the country to talk about how we do more of this. How do we get more affordable homes on the ground in Australia on the ground more quickly.
You heard from Andrew the example of how more Australians are finding it difficult to get a safe and affordable home over their heads. We know there’s no silver bullet. We know we can’t solve it overnight. But we are working as quickly as we possibly can to get as many homes on the ground as quickly as we can. This is just one part of the Federal Government’s national housing agenda. It is a great example today of what we’re trying to do across the board: to develop these partnerships to get more affordable homes on the ground quickly, so that more Australians have a safe, affordable place to call home. I’m happy now to hand over to Scott from St George Housing to talk about their role in this wonderful partnership.
SCOTT LANGFORD, ST GEORGE COMMUNITY HOUSING:
Thank you very much, Minister. Our role is about bringing together capability and capital to unlock the doors for more affordable homes. I want to acknowledge Elisa who is in the audience, who is one of our customers living in one of the affordable homes already completed behind us. She’s a midwife, she works on the Westmead health campus, and she was sharing with the Minister and I the benefits of being able to walk to work, of not having to get up so early and travel so far, of not having the costs of long travel and being able to form a part of a community with the safety and security of having a sustainable place to live. Projects like this are an example of what happens when NHFIC, Government and great partners come together and enable us to do things that create great places for everyone. I want to acknowledge and thank both colleagues at AXA and at NHFIC, together with NHFIC’s commitment to create an umbrella facility for $300 million for this and other projects we hope to be unlocking the doors to hundreds of new homes.
We think this is the start of something very significant that can help ensure that all Australians have access to safe, sustainable place to live. So thank you very much, thank you Minister for being with us here today to celebrate this milestone, and to our project partners at Deicorp I would thank you for your vision, your commitment and your willingness to step forward and bring this project with us. We acknowledge and thank your team, and we really look forward to the point we can take the keys and hand over and put them in the hands of essential workers and other Australians in need of affordable housing. Thank you very much, and I’ll now hand over to my colleague Antoine from AXA.
ANTOINE MESNAGE, AXA:
Hello everyone. The turn out is impressive. I’m delighted to be here and I’d first of all like to thank Minister Collins, Andrew Charlton and our partners as well – St George, NHFIC, Deicorp – for their trust. I can’t forget to thank the teams that have been working very hard to get to this day. It’s been an impressive project and it’s only the beginning. There’s still a lot of work to do. But today isn’t only the launch of a new development in Western Sydney, it’s the beginning of a new partnership with St George and NHFIC and it’s also the launch of AXA IM Alts strategy in Australia. AXA IM Alts is a global investor that invests with purpose, at scale. We actually have a longstanding experience in the residential sector, we believe in residential, we believe in affordable. We currently manage a portfolio of $35 billion of residential and of that a bit more than 50 per cent is affordable and it’s currently growing. That share is a growing, and I couldn’t think of a better project than Westmead to illustrate our ambition to contribute to delivering much needed new supply – sustainable, affordable, quality housing for the key workers and the general community.
I’d just like to mention a few facts about Westmead and the specific project. Westmead will have 175 households that will benefit from rent 25 per cent below market. The affordable apartments and the market apartments will have exactly the same quality and specs, with a high level of standards from an environmental perspective and obviously the strategic location, close to the precinct, the Health and Innovation Precinct, the transportation infrastructure will help key workers to limit their commute times and generally their quality of life. So we’re very proud of this. We feel that it makes a real difference and fits our ambition to invest with purpose I mentioned and to contribute to the community. So I’d like to thank again our wonderful partners in this – St George, NHFIC and Deicorp – and we wish the best of luck with Deicorp for delivering this project.
COLLINS:
So I think now we’re up to questions.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, can you explain who is eligible for this sort of housing?
COLLINS:
So it will be for key workers. We’re talking about people that are working in the local community nearby. We’re talking about affordability of rentals. We’re talking about 25 per cent below the normal market rate.
JOURNALIST:
So what do you mean by key workers?
COLLINS:
They’ll be police, teachers, nurses, those local key workers in local communities.
JOURNALIST:
And these apartments are available to buy as well or just to rent?
COLLINS:
We are talking about affordability to rent here and they will be managed by St George Community Housing.
JOURNALIST:
And when will this project finish?
COLLINS:
We hope that it will be there in 2025. We are working as quickly as we can to get as many homes on the ground as quickly as we can. We know we can’t afford to waste any time. We know that affordability for Australians has been incredibly difficult and we’ve got a lot of work to do.
JOURNALIST:
So 400 units here are there any other projects like this in the works across Sydney? How many?
COLLINS:
Well, I look forward to more announcements in coming weeks and months. We are getting moving as quickly as we possibly can. I know that the team and the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation are working as quickly as they can. As I said, we’ve got up to $575 million available from today. And then of course our Housing Australia Future Fund that we hope to have legislated early next year. We are talking about a $10 billion fund with returns being able to be invested in social and affordable housing for the long term. We’ve also of course got our National Housing Accord. We are talking about $350 million in additional funds that will be available for these types of projects for the Accord, which of course is our ambitious target to deliver a million homes right across the country together with the private sector, including an additional 10,000 affordable homes that we will fund with that $350 million.
JOURNALIST:
Are there any projects that have already been completed like this?
COLLINS:
Well, of course this is the first public-private partnership. We of course have other projects of social and affordable homes that are happening now on the ground. But this is the first public-private partnership of this type where we are getting institutional investors working with government, working with the social housing providers. This is the type of project that we want to see replicated right across the country. We know that no one tier of government or even governments alone are going to be able to solve our issue of housing supply.
JOURNALIST:
And how will it work for these workers? When can they start applying and when can they start planning to be part of the community here that lives here?
COLLINS:
Well, as we’ve said, we are hoping for completion in 2025. Obviously when you are talking about the size and scale of this development, we are talking between 350 to 400 apartments. It will take some time to get on the ground, but we want to see people in their homes as quickly as we can and obviously we’ve heard, we’ve got Elisa here today who is just next door in an affordable apartment already here on the ground.
JOURNALIST:
How much is this worth?
COLLINS:
Well, the Federal Government initially it’s $151 million and then up to $300 depending, so we are talking about significant investment here from the Federal Government here. And then of course the other investment, the private investment and the social housing investment. These are partnerships, they are quite complex partnerships and I’d be happy to hand over to Nathan from NHFIC to talk to you about the detail of that.
JOURNALIST:
Can these workers start applying for a wait list or how does that work?
LANGFORD:
We will make applications available for people closer towards completion. Because obviously there’s two and a half years of construction, we want to be able to manage people’s expectations, so typically six months prior to completion we’d start advertising and encouraging people to apply so that we can ensure they’re allocated to people who have genuine connection to the area.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, are you worried (inaudible) that these essential workers are moving out of the city? There is a trend that we are losing paramedics, we are losing police who can’t afford to live close to where they work?
COLLINS:
Yeah, and one of the ambitions of the National Housing Accord where we’ve got the three tiers of government, institutional investors and social housing providers and the construction sector all agreed to is about making sure that those key workers can live more closely to where they’re working. For all of the types of concerns that you raise we need to be able to make sure that the essential workers that community are relying on have safe affordable homes near to where they are working.
Terrific. Did you want to hear from Nathan about the arrangements?
NATHAN DAL BON, NHFIC:
Thanks, Minister. Can I just get in terms a bit more detail around your question?
JOURNALIST:
Can you tell me about the breakdown of how much it is going to cost to build this and where the investment is coming from?
DAL BON:
Well, I might just answer that with Scott. Because I’ve got my share and there’s the private component as well. But certainly from a NHFIC point of view, as the Minister said we will be contributing $150 million. The project itself will be up to 400, involve 400 apartments and then we have a broader umbrella facility which is for $300 million not just for this particular site but we are looking at a range of sites across Sydney that will also have a similar model in terms of leveraging institutional capital and other forms of finance. And I think that’s an important point for this particular project, because we’ve been investing in a number of projects over the last couple of years. This is the first that we’ve done that we’ve been able to leverage in institutional capital and going forward we have to do more of these projects. Importantly from a NHFIC point of view, what we seek to do is essentially provide that anchor for financing and then we work with other providers such as AXA and other financiers to leverage in additional finance.
JOURNALIST:
And what will they look like? Two bedroom, one bedroom (inaudible).
COLLINS:
It will be a mix of a range of family types. As we’ve said before, the idea with these particular properties is to actually have them integrated into the community, and I think that’s the objective with mixed tenure projects where you have quite a seamless transition between homes that are subsidised and market. Thank you.