A residential project planned for Miranda will provide affordable housing for teachers and other key workers in the Sutherland Shire, Federation General Secretary John Dixon told August Council.
Mr Dixon said First State Super had targeted the region for its first housing affordability project due to the high concentration of teachers and nurses in the area.
“The Miranda project is a pilot project of $70 million building 115 units with more than 50 per cent available to key workers such as teachers and nurses, with the eligible workers paying 70 per cent of the market rental,” he said.
The Miranda project is planned to provide accommodation for key workers within 3km of their workplace including Port Hacking High School, Miranda Public School, Gymea Technology High School, Kirrawee Public School, Endeavour Sports High School, Caringbah High School, Caringbah North Public School as well as Sutherland Hospital, Kareena Private Hospital and President Private Hospital.
The housing is close to transport – Miranda train station and the Princes Highway – and is expected to be completed by December 2020.
The first of two Unions NSW reports has highlighted declining home purchase affordability for Sydney’s key workers who have been priced out of inner, middle and many outer areas of the metropolitan region.
As a consequence many teachers, nurses, police and emergency workers are commuting long distances to get to work or are living in over-priced rental accommodation.
“The paper commissioned by Unions NSW, part funded by Federation, points to significant opportunity to unlock workers’ capital for such project without compromising the returns to fund pensions and income streams for our members,” Mr Dixon said.
“First State Super has more than a dozen projects in the pipeline for which they are undertaking due diligence.”
At 2017 Annual Conference, Federation issued a position paper on affordable housing for key workers that asked associated bodies to use “workers’ capital” in institutions such as Teachers Mutual Bank and First State Super.
Discussions commenced between Federation and senior management at First State Super, after the position paper generated much media interest at the time.
While Federation had discussed the need for affordable housing in the CBD and inner suburbs, First State Super informed Federation the Miranda location was a pilot project to assist in developing a model that can support a more substantial addition of affordable housing to the residential supply mix.