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MORE AFFORDABLE HOMES UP FOR GRABS · The Real Estate Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Cam, we've spoken on the show about Community Housing
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Canberra before, and they're passionate about providing affordable homes for
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Canberrans in need. That's their bread and butter, right?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Indeed.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: And there's some affordable two-beddy apartments that are up for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: grabs in the heart of Turner. So another really great
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: project that comes back to the heart and the key
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: message of helping people in Canberra who need it, you know,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: secure a rental.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, The fact that it's in Turner and
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: not on the outskirts of Canberra, it's right in the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: centre of where everything's happening. This is massive as well.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely. And Nathan Dalbon is CEO of Community Housing Canberra. Nathan,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: good morning.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Karen. Good morning, Renee.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Now, before we kick things off and find out about
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: this project, just so we're clear, how does Community Housing
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Canberra describe affordable housing?
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, great question. So, look, there's various definitions of affordable housing.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: But for us, it's typically around that 75% of equivalent
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: market rent. So, in this case, we're looking at two
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: bedrooms internal. So, we would have a look at, say,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: full market rent internal in terms of what people are charging.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: And then we would essentially take a comparison and deduct
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: that by 25%. Okay. All right.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: And so with that said, what's the number one misconception
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: when it comes to affordable housing?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think certainly my perception has been that a
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: lot of people associate affordable housing with, for example, public housing. Well,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: in our case, what we're targeting or the people that
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: we're targeting are essentially working people on moderate incomes. So
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: your frontline workers, teachers, nurses, police officers, basically, you know,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: people on moderate incomes across Canberra are essentially the people
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: that we're focusing on with affordable housing.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, providing essential services to the community.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: And that's why the Turner location with the proximity to
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: a whole range of businesses directly across from the ANU, Parkland,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: we just sort of thought it's a really great project.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: And it's the old PCYC building, for those people that
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: will know, that has been redeveloped. So it's a fantastic location.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And so tell us more about that,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the Turner One affordable housing project. Tell us a bit more.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have 45 apartments, a combination of one
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: and twos, to give you an indication of that sort
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: of discount to market rent that we offer. We're looking
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: at about $ 400 a week for a one-bedder and around
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: $ 500 a week for the two-bedders, which I think for
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: that location is quite amazing. I think the other thing,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: we have car spaces. They're fully kitted out in terms
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of built-in wardrobes, So in terms of probably that's another
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: perception when it comes to affordable housing is that sometimes
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: it's done on the cheap. In this case, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: the inclusions and the finish would be just like any
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  Speaker 3: other apartment complex that you would come across. Yeah.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I mentioned that, you know, the fact that this is
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: located in Turner is a good thing. You can walk
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: to the city. There's no doubt about that. But I
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: know exactly where you mean. That's a 50 metre walk
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: to Barry Drive. So you're essentially in the centre of town,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: aren't you?
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah, the location and the amenity is just second
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: to none. I think the other thing I'd say about
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: an organisation like Community Housing Canberra is that it's not
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: just about the property, it's also about the service that
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: we offer to tenants because, you know, we are a
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: community organisation. And so just an example of that, we
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: have a dedicated in-house maintenance team. So, you know, when
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: things inevitably break or go wrong, we have people that
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: are essentially contactable both in business and outside areas. So
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: we can provide that sort of quality service to tenants. Yep.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And that makes a big difference. Absolutely. It's massive. Nathan, well,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: we'd love to learn more about, you know, what you
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: guys have in the pipeline, but we will have to
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: leave it there today. But we'll touch base again soon.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: And thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Renee, in Canberra. Appreciate it.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Nathan Dabbon, who's CEO of Community Housing Canberra.