Housing and tenancy profile

The sector managed 22,253 rental units, including both long-term and short-term accommodation such as transitional and crisis housing.

Housing associations owned or managed 70.7 per cent of the total housing stock compared to housing providers who owned or managed 29.3 per cent.

Community housing units grew by 5.1 per cent in 2021-22, following an annual average increase of 2 per cent over the previous four financial years. The majority of the growth in 2021-22 was attributed to the increase in units managed on behalf of the Director of Housing (DoH) and other parties, as well as head leased¹ to provide supported accommodation to people experiencing homelessness housed in hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The growth in the 2021-22 period is broadly consistent across registered agency types, with housing capacity increasing by 5.5 per cent for housing associations and 4.3 per cent for housing providers. Housing associations owned the majority of their housing portfolio (67.1 per cent). Housing providers owned less (13 per cent) and mostly managed housing stock on behalf of the DoH and third parties.

The majority of tenancy units owned or managed by the sector (77 per cent) was long-term housing, including rooming houses and specialist disability accommodation (SDA). Transitional housing, which provides shorter term accommodation, comprised 21 per cent and crisis housing made up the remaining 1 per cent.

During the 2021-22 period, the fastest growing housing type was transitional housing, increasing by 14.9 per cent to 4,653 units. Rooming houses grew by 5.8 per cent to 1,877 units and other long-term housing grew by 3.4 per cent to 15,163 tenancies.

The From Homelessness to a Home (H2H) and Homes for Families (H4F) programs were the leading drivers for these increases. These programs provided stable housing for tenants at risk of homelessness in emergency accommodation due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Most community housing assets (70.2 per cent) were concentrated in metropolitan areas with 15,623 housing units across all housing types located within Greater Melbourne. The remainder (29.8 per cent or 6,630 housing units) are in regional local government areas (LGAs).

Regional LGAs continue to benefit from ongoing sector development initiatives with 31.9 per cent of net growth during the reporting period being delivered in regional and rural Victoria.

Footnotes

1. Head leasing is where a private rental property is rented from the landlord/owner by a legal entity, such as a community housing provider or a government agency, which then on lets the property to a low income or disadvantaged tenant.