Affordable Housing Idea
By Russell Bode, Director of Innovation at Inzenius

We have a real crisis impacting the well-being of our population and businesses now and will in the future if not addressed. Our culture of the desire for homeownership has moved beyond the reach of many of our first-home buyers. Homeownership provides the foundation for a safe family environment and a liveable retirement when the time comes around.

Affordable rentals with services near where people need to work are also becoming out of reach for the early-career employees needed for our workplaces.

It is not the first time that we as a nation have been in a situation as we now see in housing availability and affordability.

After the Second World War, we had to accommodate many new arrivals and returning soldiers and did not have enough affordable homes; that sounds familiar.

The solution was to create the environment to enable the building and financing of enough homes for new arrivals, lower-wage earning first-home buyers, which BuildingCo-Ops will administer.
To deliver on the dream of home ownership, we must create an achievable pathway for low-wage first-time home buyers to enter the market.

The solution we need now is to enable the building and financing of enough homes for new arrivals, first-time homebuyers, mobile workforces, and those requiring emergency accommodation for any reason.
The Building Co-OpPotential Model for the 2,000’s

The Inzenius idea I am proposing is as follows.

1. Establish the co-ops for the management of funding for the building of affordable first homes in precincts close to services and workplaces for the workforce
Applicants will apply for and be granted government-backed loans up to a limit that has been bulk negotiated or tendered to the banks at a favourable interest rate.

  1. This market would not normally be available to the banks and provide additional income to them.
  2. Provide a pathway for the bank to sell additional services and be there when the borrower can move up the homeownership requirement for family growth, homeowner and borrowed for
  3. A fixed percentage of the family income will be set for repayment based on the borrower’s wages while living in the home.
    1. Any shortfall in payment to meet the bank loans will be added to the payment term and/or provided by a government loan top-up, which will be treated as equity in the loan until repaid.
    2. The builder will bid to build the homes for longer-term development and work planning for their business security.
    3. The government will own a number of the homes for the use of emergency accommodation agencies.
    4. A percentage will be offered to essential services that accommodate new residents.
    5. Universities and the like will be able to rent the facilities for their short-term visa attendees at their institutions.
    6. Low-income people will apply for access to the accommodation as now administered by the Government(s
    7. I propose creating a raft of available land/platforms adjacent to existing transport hubs and railway lines to fund these concepts.
    8. One idea is to use the raft of government(s) funds being applied to boost affordable housing to build platforms over the current railway infrastructure to construct low-cost homes.
      These platforms will support 5-story low-cost and size accommodation units.
      Builders will be delivered access and no cost to these platforms for the construction of standardised, designed, and pre-approved units that they can build and choose to sell or rent, with the retention of a number for new arrivals, renters, mobile workforces that require emergency accommodation for any reason, and first-time homebuyers.
      The state government will determine the % allocation to each category.

The Benefits of This ConceptIt will create a planned sustainable end to the critical shortage of low-cost housing.

Deliver the inventory of rental accommodation.

i. Short-term accommodation for new and short-stay residents in Australia
ii. Enable mobile workers to find accommodation near to their workplace.
iii. Long-term rental accommodation

Deliver the achievable dream and value of Australian home ownership.

Help people get onto the first home ownership ladder.
a. To deliver a better and more secure life and retirement
b. Reduce stress levels in the young to retired Australian

Deliver stable future works for building companies

i. To sustain the development planning and implementation of workforce development
ii. Better potential sustained profitability of building companies.Local council economic development

i. Extra population drives council rates and business
ii. Better use of local infrastructure

Build Overall Railway Lines (Melbourne)

“Melbourne is growing fast, and with the Suburban Rail Loop, we’re making room for thousands of new homes in the right places — close to transport, jobs and services,” Ms Allan said.

My back-of-the-envelope estimate is that we have over 200 km of additional tracks available, more than the six suburban Rail Loop Precincts.

In Melbourne, I estimate we have 200+ additional Km of railway lines.
a. By 1,000 (Km to Meters) = 200,000
b. Divided by (6m wide units) 33,000
c. By 5 levels = 165,000 additional apartment potential for Melbourne alone

Reduction of the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)

  1. Reduce the NIMBY issues, as homes being built in precincts are not the dream of more affluent homeowners.
  2. No Land Purchase Costs
  3. The land purchase and infrastructure costs were replaced with the cost of building the platform.