The Affordable Housing Challenge is an Initiative of Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation that encourages land owners to build affordable housing on underutilised land close to amenities.
The Foundation ran the first Challenge in 2017 with local government land partners who could make suitable land available at no cost (by title transfer or 50-year lease). In 2020, the Foundation ran a Challenge that focused on not-for-profit land holders.
2023 Affordable Housing Challenge
The 2023 Affordable Housing Challenge will again focus on eligible not-for-profits, including faith-based organisations, who wish to use their land holding, including vacant land, strata or redevelopment of existing buildings, to increase the supply of affordable housing in Melbourne. The Challenge is intended to encourage not-for-profits to utilise their existing land holdings and demonstrate a scalable and replicable solution to providing affordable rental housing.
Grant
The 2023 Affordable Housing Challenge will include funding for eligible organisations to undertake a feasibility study to develop affordable housing on underutilised land in Greater Melbourne.
Feasibility studies allow organisations to analyse parts of a potential capital works development, and could include:
Feasibility grant amount
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Individual grants between $30,000 - $50,000
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Applicants may indicate if all or part of the grant would be useful as a no interest loan repayable when other funding is achieved.
Note: The 2023 Challenge will also include invited applications from up to three community housing providers that have submitted shortlisted proposals for the Foundation’s Challenge project with City of Melbourne.