Managing Affordable Housing

Affordable rental housing projects require ongoing management to allocate tenancies to eligible households and to maintain properties at appropriate standards.

A range of management options is available. It is possible to manage your own site, if you have skills in that area. In other cases specific housing companies, such as City West Housing, have been formed to develop and manage affordable housing.

In NSW, most affordable housing is managed through experienced community housing providers. These organisations are not-for-profit organisations with a charter to manage housing for low-to-moderate income and special needs households. The community housing sector has specific skills and significant experience in tenancy and property management of affordable housing.

For over 20 years, community housing providers in NSW have been managing rental housing properties which target low-income tenants. This housing is owned by the housing providers, has been leased from private owners or headleased from the NSW Government. In NSW there are more than 300 organisations managing over 17,500 properties. The largest housing providers successfully manage between 350 and 2,000 properties.

The Community Housing Division, is a specialist unit operating within Housing NSW, has responsibility for the effective management and support of the community housing system. The Community Housing Division ensures the providers operate in the public interest and are accountable to government, tenants, and the owners or agencies with whom the community housing organisations interact.

The NSW Government has established a registration and accreditation system to assist in the provision of high quality tenancy and property management by the sector. Information about the Registrar of Community Housing is available at Registrar's website.

The Centre for Affordable Housing can assist developers and owners of affordable housing to identify qualified housing managers for their projects.

The NSW Government has introduced Operating Guidelines to inform the management of affordable housing funded in part through the NSW Government. The Guidelines, which are available for download below, provide principles to guide the management and operation of affordable housing as well as policy guidelines on key issues. The Guidelines include information about income limits for eligible tenants. For more information on the Guidelines, please contact the Centre for Affordable Housing:

There are opportunities for organisations to partner with community housing providers to deliver affordable housing. The following list of registered community housing providers have consented to their details being used for the purpose of identifying partnership opportunities. The Centre for Affordable Housing can not provide any further information or recommend any particular provider. This list will be updated from time to time.

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