Community Housing Provider Horizon Housing and the Tweed Shire Council yesterday unveiled an innovative joint housing project showcasing the latest in affordable housing thinking in part of the new Hundred Hills estate.
The concept village is the result of four partnerships and two innovative approaches to breaking down barriers to home ownership and housing-stress relief.
Originally planned to help relieve local housing stress in the Tweed region, the village commenced as a partnership between Horizon Housing and Tweed Shire Council but evolved into much more as Horizon worked with its other partners to maximise the potential of the development.
Horizon Housing CEO, Jason Cubit, said the project has not only helped Tweed Shire locals break into the housing market and conquer housing stress, but stands as an example for other Australian governments and communities – demonstrating how innovative thinking in the housing space leads to better outcomes.
“This innovative joint housing project showcases two affordable housing initiatives which will help individuals and families on low to moderate incomes to break into the market and stand on their own financial feet.”
“Horizon Housing worked with the support of Tweed Shire Council, The Commonwealth Government, Stockland and Bank Australia to develop the range of housing options available in the village,” Mr Cubit Said.
Horizon offers a number of house and land packages in the Reserve at Hundred Hills at affordable values for the area, with some blocks selling for as little as $165,000 to eligible buyers with their own finance.
The innovation, however, is that for each of these blocks, the housing project provides a new mortgage financing option that allows eligible home buyers to defer 25 per cent of their mortgage until they sell their property through Horizon’s partnership with Bank Australia.
The remaining properties in the project at the Reserve in the Hundred Hills estate will also be available to eligible residents at discounted rental rates to be managed directly by Horizon Housing.
The $8.36 million partnership between Horizon Housing and Tweed Shire Council was funded via the Federal Government’s Building Better Regional Cities programme to help reduce the cost of building local infrastructure and provide more accessible housing to low and middle income Australians.
“We were thrilled to showcase the new project to Tweed Shire Mayor, Cr Katie Milne which demonstrates innovative approaches to getting people into affordable housing, taking pressure off first homebuyers and making the Tweed a more attractive place to live and raise a family,” said Mr Cubit.
The unveiling and showcase to partners included a walkthrough of the first completed house in the development, providing an insight into what it takes to deliver a village initiative like Hundred Hills - an innovation which Horizon Housing hope will be emulated by other organisations across Australia.
For more information about Horizon Housing and how they are helping people into accommodation and the housing market, visit www.horizonhousing.com.au.
