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 has been leased from private owners and headleased from the NSW Government. In NSW there are more than 230 organisations managing over 10,000 properties. The largest housing providers successfully manage between 350 and 1,000 properties.
The Office of Community Housing (OCH), a specialist unit operating within the NSW Department of Housing, has responsibility for the effective management and support of the community housing system. OCH 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. In carrying out this management role, OCH sets and monitors the performance benchmarks.
OCH has established a registration and accreditation system to assist in the provision of high quality tenancy and property management by the sector.
Community housing providers wishing to manage affordable housing in NSW must be registered.
The Centre for Affordable Housing can assist developers and owners of affordable housing to identify qualified housing managers for their projects.
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