Affordable housing developer Nightingale has thoroughly endorsed the Progressive Residential Affordability Development Solution by Housing All Australians (HAA), hailing it as an innovative method to mitigate housing issues nationwide.

The solution, labelled PRADS for short, sees local governments grant concessions to height limits to developers in exchange for a commitment to include a substantial number of affordable housing units within the complex.

It is hoped that, if carried out frequently, that the concessions will be able to considerably boost affordable housing stock, through enhancing the land value of a project, which becomes the subsidy for affordable housing, with developers then able to offer further affordable dwellings.

Nightingale recently piloted the solution in North Coburg, which saw a ten percent increase in affordable housing lots through the concession. The project, titled Nightingale Umarkoo Wayi, has been designed by Kennedy Nolan.

Nightingale CEO Dan McKenna says PRADS allowed them to increase social housing without taking a hit financially, or having to seek subsidies.

“The housing crisis won’t be fixed with a single solution. It’s going to require us trying many different things, from many different angles, to ensure the homes we need are built in a timeframe that will help people put a much-need roof over their heads,” he says.

“The PRADS model is a fantastic approach and we hope it will only gain momentum as more projects like North Coburg demonstrate its benefits.”

Recent changes to Victorian Government policy, made via the recent Housing Statement, will be concessions made for developers who allocate 10 percent of their projects to social housing. McKenna says that this is the way forward.

“Those changes flagged by the Victorian Government, deployed concurrently with PRADS, will make it just so much more attractive for any developer to include a significant affordable housing component in their multi-unit residential projects,” he says.

Nightingale worked alongside Merri-bek Council to increase the height by two storeys as part of the rezoning of a warehouse site from commercial to residential for the North Coburg project. As a result, the value of the land increased, with Nightingale using that increase to fund the additional affordable housing units.

“Nightingale acknowledges the collaboration with Merri-bek Council in their support of the PRADS model, and the work of HAA in developing the model,” McKenna continues.

“To fix a broken Australian housing market will require exactly this kind of innovation and collaboration.”

Nightingale Umarkoo Wayi is scheduled for completion in 2024.

Jarrod Reedie

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