Getting to grips with so-called ‘affordability’

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An ABC Four Corners program well worth watching has kicked off a more informed debate on what is actually going on!

Unaffordable: Australia’s Broken Housing Promise shows serious deficiencies in Australia’s housing affordability schemes, finding that in NSW these rentals are too expensive for the people who need them most. Analysing two months worth of ‘affordable’ rental listings found some properties were actually being advertised above median (mid-range) market rates.

While the NSW Government definition says that affordable housing is rented at a lower price than usual market rent, in practice that is not always the case. Moreover, as the Four Cornersprogram showed, some community housing providers of homes with ‘affordable’ rents change their charging calculation, from 30% of household income to 20 or 25% of market rates, thereby tipping tenants into income stress.

Interesting comments came from Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, a former CEO of Mirvac (developer), who said that new affordable housing should be permanent (and not just for 15 years).  She criticised developers building affordable housing that is only temporarily ‘affordable’; she also criticised the linking of ‘affordable’ rents to market rates.

“If you live in Sydney, something that’s 25 per cent below market rent isn’t affordable to very many people at all,” she said. Lloyd-Hurwits concluded: “I think there needs to be more participation from government actually building, like we used to…The government actually has to go out and start building houses again.” 

In parallel, the ABC also published this article and further comment can be read here.

Losing actual affordability

Not only do the Inner West Council’s (IWC) “Fairer Future” Plan and the State Government’s TOD (Transport Oriented Development) plans propose dwellings that are allowed greater heights with add-ons of ‘affordable’ units (which aren’t necessarily affordable and which revert to private ownership after 15 years), but many of the sites likely to be bought up by developers for redevelopment are made up of dwellings which are actually affordable now. Knocking them down to build high-rise with some (temporarily) ‘affordable’ housing will result in a net loss of affordable housing.

Warren Road back with new DA in court – please help!

Perhaps the most outstanding example (so far) of this in our LGA is the (now revised) Development Application for 50/52 Warren Road, Marrickville. 

Photos by Isaac Nellist

Following the rally outside the premises on 22 April 2026, and the conciliation hearing between the developer and IWC, adjudicated by the Land & Environment Court, the developer has come up with a revised Development Application, yet another disappointment. There’s still no relocation plan (of existing tenants), as the Court stipulated. The proposed building plan is much the same height and bulk as the previous. Disappointingly, for the Inner-West community:

  • Sufficient accommodation is not available to satisfy demand from the displaced tenants
  • Adequate arrangements have not been made to find alternative accommodation for tenants 
  • The proposed affordable housing contribution will not adequately mitigate the loss of affordable housing; and yet:
  • The current buildings are structurally sound, and therefore can continue to play a role delivering affordable housing into the future.

While it is positive that the developer is now conceding the need to pay an affordable housing loss contribution for all lost bedrooms, and ‘suggesting’ that efforts will be made to relocate tenants, these efforts do not overcome the affordable housing problems this application will cause. As there has been no attempt by the developer to consult tenants on the relocation plan, it seems unlikely they can be trusted to complete such arrangements post-approval. Left alone, this site will continue to provide housing which is relatively more affordable than surrounding housing.

CALL TO ACTION 1

Show support by rallying at the court’s site visit 24 August 9am for 9:30am 

Turn up to 50-52 Warren Road and hear from architect Eddie Ma, tenant Duncan, and a representative from the Marrickville Heritage Society. Join the facebook event here.

CALL TO ACTION 2

And by putting in a submission before 13 August. A thorough analysis and many good points can be found here – but please write your submission in your own words:

The link to make your submission is here: 

A new mega-community group launches – ‘Doing Density Better’

Twenty-seven community action groups have joined together to create Doing Density Better (DDB), which was officially launched at NSW Parliament House on 7 July – see launch presentations (many interesting speeches!) on YouTube here

Doing Density Better is focused on making an impact at the next State election. It shares its social media links with “our goal is simple — every voter in NSW aware of these issues before they walk into the ballot box in 2027”.

Follow them on Instagram or Facebook or both!

CALL TO ACTION 3

Petition closes 31 July

One initiative of DDB is a petition to Parliament Save Genuinely Affordable Housing from New Planning Rule Exploitation opposing the In-Fill Affordable Housing Bonus (AHB), which is being exploited by developers to build luxury apartments while failing to deliver genuinely affordable housing. It calls for the prohibition of AHB where it results in net loss of low-cost housing, and to:

  • Ensure new affordable housing is genuinely affordable—capped at 30% of household income, retained in perpetuity
  • Introduce location-based limits to the $75 million SSD threshold
  • Assess infrastructure, amenity and heritage impacts prior to granting density
  • Establish a Parliamentary Inquiry to publicly evaluate the AHB’s operation.