Successful housing partnerships already exist. The problem is how to replicate the conditions that allow them to succeed.
That distinction is being investigated by new research from Queensland University of Technology (QUT). It examined five social and affordable housing partnerships to understand what allows successful projects to be scaled.
Spoiler: there is no magic bullet, but its findings do uncover common conditions that support successful multi-agency projects.
The coordination complexity explored in the QUT research is visible in projects such as Junction Australia's Thrive Tonsley, opened this month, where social and affordable housing sit alongside development, community services, government funding and multiple delivery partners. It's an example of the increasingly broad role community housing providers can play and the operational challenge that can sit behind successful delivery.
For us, that's where the opportunity lies. We can't remove the complexity from housing delivery, but we can make it easier to manage: creating clearer ways for people, partners and information to come together, making responsibilities visible and giving organisations a better view of what's happening across delivery.
If we can make coordination easier, we make successful delivery easier to repeat.
This Week
Housing activity is improving—but the Accord remains behind target
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council's August quarterly report shows signs of improvement under the National Housing Accord. Quarterly housing approvals are now 26% higher and commencements 15% higher than in the quarter immediately before the Accord period began.
But Australia remains behind the trajectory required to deliver 1.2 million homes within five years. After seven of the Accord's 20 quarters, 308,000 homes have been completed, and the Council now expects the target to be reached in the December quarter of 2030 rather than within the original five-year period.
That puts the challenge of repeatable delivery into perspective. Australia doesn't just need individual projects to succeed; it needs to turn funding, approvals and commencements into completed homes consistently and at enormous scale.
Further reading
NHSAC Quarterly Report
What makes a housing partnership scalable?
New QUT research has examined five social and affordable housing partnership models to understand what allows successful projects to be scaled.
Commissioned by the Property Council of Australia and CHIA Queensland, the research found recurring ingredients across the projects it examined: collaboration between government, community housing providers, investors and industry; policy certainty; clear objectives; organisational capability; and delivery models flexible enough to respond to different circumstances.
The findings suggest there is unlikely to be a single model that can simply be replicated everywhere. What can become repeatable are the conditions around delivery: clear roles, stable settings, capable organisations and structures that allow multiple parties to work together effectively.
For community housing providers, that puts greater emphasis on the structures around a partnership: who is responsible for what, how decisions are made, how information moves between organisations and how accountability is maintained as a project progresses.
Further reading
Partnerships key to scaling social and affordable housing delivery in Queensland
Thrive Tonsley shows what multi-agency delivery looks like on the ground
Junction Australia has opened the first stage of its $36 million Thrive Tonsley development in South Australia, combining 50 social homes with the organisation's new head office, community spaces and a café.
The project received $15.2 million through the Social Housing Accelerator Program. A second stage will add 63 affordable build-to-rent apartments, supported by $25.6 million from the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility.
One project doesn't establish a sector-wide shift but Thrive Tonsley provides a tangible example of the delivery model described in the QUT research. Housing sits alongside development, community facilities and services, with different levels of government, funding programs and delivery partners involved.
It also illustrates why coordination matters. As community housing providers take on larger portfolios and broader responsibilities, successful delivery increasingly depends on keeping homes, services, partners, funding and obligations connected rather than treating each as a separate task.
Further reading
Junction Opens Thrive Tonsley
