AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The Hon. L. STEVENS (Little Para) (15:47): Today I would like to congratulate the Salisbury council and a number of organisations that combined together to bring to fruition a pilot program to provide affordable housing in a very innovative way in the Salisbury council area.

This program was announced in November 2007, when the City of Salisbury endorsed the development of an affordable housing strategy for its area. There were two main areas of housing to which the council was interested in providing some assistance. One was the provision of affordable homes for purchase by low to very moderate income earners, and the other was the provision of affordable retirement dwellings for older residents.

The function that I attended a couple of weeks or so ago was about the affordable housing for purchase by low to very moderate income earners. Essentially, what has happened is that the core of the pilot was for Salisbury council to supply surplus council land for homeowners who would not have to pay for the land until the property that they had purchased is sold into the future, with the council to share in the capital gain of that land over that time.

The City of Salisbury recognised that, even though it is the fastest growing LGA in the metropolitan area, it has a higher gross regional productivity and higher rate of employment growth in Adelaide overall. What it found was that, with its rapidly expanding economy, people were looking to take advantage of affordable housing. It also found that, while job opportunities continue to be created in its area, national and international trends in housing affordability have placed home ownership out of the reach of many existing and potential residents of Salisbury, where the median household gross income is $42,000 per annum.

So, the council went about trying to work out how it could, in fact, provide something that would appeal to a large number of its residents—and, in this case, first home buyers. To qualify for this purchase, a person had to be a first home buyer, they had to live or work in Salisbury and they had to have an annual household income of less than $59,000 per annum. The council held discussions with the state government's Affordable Housing Innovations Unit about how it could facilitate home purchase in accordance with council's endorsement of 2007. It then had subsequent negotiations with HomeStart finance to develop a funding model that uses council-owned land in a shared equity mortgage scheme.

In brief, with respect to this scheme, the council's upfront contribution is a portion of the land value, which means that the potential purchaser's borrowing power is significantly enhanced, and the scheme enables them to achieve home ownership when such a goal would otherwise be unlikely to be achieved. The cost of the land is repaid when the home is sold or if the purchaser chooses to pay it out as he or she acquires more equity in the property.

I attended the launch of 11 properties that have been constructed by McCracken Homes in Dansie Crescent, Brahma Lodge. Salisbury council has received many applications of interest with respect to the project, and it expects to repeat it in various other areas across the Salisbury area. I commend and congratulate the council on the initiative.