The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) has welcomed the $25 million Regional Housing Support Fund launched by the State Government to help unlock housing across regional WA.
This reflects WALGA’s advocacy to create a comprehensive, long-term strategy to address the shortage of social, affordable and key worker housing, including:
- Measures to increase the availability of temporary accommodation solutions to address immediate housing challenges
- Working with Local Governments to efficiently unlock underutilised Government-owned land for housing initiatives.
WALGA has said that collaboration among all levels of government, industry stakeholders, and community organisations is essential to develop effective solutions to WA’s housing challenges.
Applications for the Regional Housing Support Fund close at 5:00pm on Friday, 19 December.
The Regional Housing Support Fund (RHSF) provides grants of up to $5 million to local governments, community housing providers and landowners/developers to support key worker, community housing and residential subdivision projects in regional Western Australia.
Delivering new housing in regional Western Australia can be challenging due to additional costs associated with bringing land and housing to market. These costs include site preparation, provision of enabling infrastructure, construction and civil works – all of which impact the feasibility and affordability of projects. The extent of these feasibility gaps vary across regions, depending on factors such as location, access to finance, availability of skilled labour and materials, and local expertise.
The purpose of the Regional Housing Support Fund is to assist with addressing identified and quantified feasibility gaps in relation to enabling infrastructure, construction and civil works, subject to eligibility requirements, and to bring projects to fruition sooner.
For key worker housing or community housing projects to be eligible for funding:
- Projects must be located within, or in the vicinity of, an existing regional centre, townsite or community within regional WA, excluding the Perth and Peel metropolitan region.
- Projects must propose the delivery of three or more dwellings and/or the delivery of three or more residential lots. For dwellings, this can be across multiple lots if the delivery is undertaken as a single package. For subdivision, the proposed lots must be on a single contiguous site.
- Projects must demonstrate the timely delivery of one or more of the following outcomes:
- New self-contained housing for affordable purchase or lease by key workers, located within a reasonable vicinity to employment locations, amenities and services.
- Community housing accommodation situated within regional centres or townsites.
- New serviced lots for residential dwellings.
Applications must demonstrate that the projects are capable, if funded, of timely delivery (i.e. at the stage where contractors can be engaged and construction begins).
For more information read the Regional Housing Support Guidelines for Applicants and the Frequently Asked Questions below.
