Construction tenders have closed for a proposed 133 new public housing homes across South Australia.
SA Human Services Minister, Nat Cook said 103 of the planned homes were part of the state government’s $177.5 million election commitment to build 437 new public homes under the Public Housing Improvement Program.
The program will also upgrade 350 vacant properties so they can be homes again for people in need; while extra maintenance will be carried out on a further 3,000 properties, the Minister said.
“We have received strong interest from builders to partner with us and begin the re-building of public housing in this state and deliver more affordable housing to South Australians who need it most,” she said.
“The homes will be a mix of two, three and four-bedroom properties, with two-bedroom being the most common to help the large number of single person households who need help to find a home.
“The homes are being built with both sustainability and accessibility in mind by meeting the Silver standard of the Liveable Housing Design Guidelines.”
She said the number of new builds across the state had now increased to 564 as part of the state government’s recently announced A Better Housing Future plan that increased the additional funding for public housing to $232.7 million.
Significantly, the sale of 580 SA Housing Authority properties has been stopped so they can keep providing safe and affordable homes for hundreds of low-income South Australians, said Ms Cook.
Together, the new housing and the cancelled sales mean the Authority will have 1,144 additional homes by 2026, she said.
Homes will be built in Kilburn, Broadview, Felixstow, Woodville, Edwardstown, Paradise, Hectorville, Port Augusta (27) Whyalla (8), Renmark (6) and Port Pirie (3).
The tender, released to the Housing Authority’s panel of pre-qualified builders in January, emphasises the use of South Australian businesses and materials, where available. They will now be evaluated before the successful builders are announced.
“These new homes are closer to being built, and we anticipate we will be able to announce the successful builders by May 2023, with ground to be broken my mid-2023 and competed by 2024,” said Presiding Member South Australian Housing Trust Board, Mary Patetsos.
“They are some of the first to be built under our plan to revitalise public housing by building new homes to replace older ones that are no longer fit for purpose. The new properties are better suited to the needs of our customers.”
The 133 homes are expected to be under construction by the middle of the year and completed in 2024.
A further 81 homes are already contracted for construction, with 71 underway and 10 in the final stages of planning approval. Locations include Salisbury, St Mary’s, Parafield, Elizabeth, North Plympton and Croydon, as well as Mount Gambier and Murray Bridge.
Another 81 homes are scheduled for tender release in the next four months, with construction to commence in late 2023.
