Are we pleased to see incentives for private developers to build unaffordable boarding houses removed? You betcha.

Shelter NSW has offered general support for a range of proposed government reforms to create a ‘diversity’ of housing types and in particular, a new requirement that boarding houses be affordable and managed by community housing providers.

During a recent interview with SMH journalist Michael Koziol, Shelter NSW CEO, John Engeler, and former Senior Policy Officer, Ryan Harris, noted that it would be a good outcome if developers were no longer offered incentives to build ‘micro apartments’ that were often leased for $400 a week in so-called ‘new generation boarding houses’.

“[Developers] may be upset because they’ve killed off a high yielding development category,” Ryan noted . “To say they will no longer develop affordable housing is false; they will now be managed by community housing providers and the more we support them the more they will develop it.

We’ll have a lot more to say about this proposed Housing State Environmental Planning Policy as it will bring a lot of changes  – beyond those relating to boarding houses (such as creating three development types: Build-to-Rent, StudentHousing, and Co-Living). 

To read more about how the property development sector has reacted to the proposed changes, here is the SMH article.