Commercial collaborationwith our partners and government allows us to leverage debt facilities and access innovative finance to fund projects that are tailored to the individual needs of our residents.
JamesHenry General Manager, Property Development and Asset Management.
Across all our regions, we are highly focused on improving the energy e ciency of both existing and future dwellings. Over 1000 properties in our Tasmanian portfolio were identified for improved ventilation and draught proofing and all were brought up to our required standard by the end of the financial year. In Victoria, we pursued three major energy-saving initiatives across the portfolio, much of which involves the installation of solar panels. We anticipate around 200 dwellings will benefit significantly from this initiative. 79 properties were identified for upgrades and planning is underway. Every state in Australia operates under di erent funding environments, and at the federal level this is still being formulated. The direction of future funding is more than likely to be in the form of long-term debt arrangements, where the government provides improved terms on interest for social housing providers and recurrent subsidies to address the rent gap between social housing and the private market. In response to this changing environment, we actively seek new partnerships, including rental management opportunities. To fully leverage these, we have worked hard to clearly identify what is the most appropriate housing to address residents’ needs. For example, many residents have multiple disabilities and are also ageing. Our participation in a collaborative Ageing in Place research project with the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture at Monash University (MADA) has enabled us to specifically focus on meeting these kinds of complex future requirements.
We know there are significant social and other benefits for residents in mixed tenure environments and many of our developments determinedly include community spaces where residents can interact and connect. Where possible and appropriate, we look to leverage the planning policy incentives available in a particular region (e.g. inclusionary zoning) as a way of providing better value and creating additional housing supply. This year, we assumed full property and tenancy management of 45 Disability Housing Limited (DHL) shared-living properties in Victoria. Planning has begun for a complete reconfiguration of our Victorian-based Singleton Housing shared-living property portfolio to fit the new NDIS structure, with a primary aim to cause no disruption and no disadvantage to residents. We budgeted for two disability housing demonstration projects in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Schematic designs are now complete and stakeholder engagement will be undertaken before construction, with completion scheduled for mid-2019. A further four properties have been identified within the portfolio, located at Skye, Seaford, Ringwood and Reservoir and design plans have been prepared.
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