Affordable and diverse housing fund

Grants team

We'd like to help you choose the right grant and provide tips for a successful application.

Senior Planner Central Sydney Planning

Applications now open

Requests for this grant are received all year round or until funds are exhausted.

Contact us to enquire about the current status of funding available or for help with any other details.

About this program

The affordable and diverse housing fund promotes the development of affordable and diverse rental housing in our area by community housing providers, not-for-profit and for-profit organisations.

The fund is part of our commitment to overcome financial barriers to affordable and diverse housing development. It aligns with the housing for a diverse population strategic direction in Sustainable Sydney 2030 and our housing issues paper.

Initiatives and projects can contribute to one or more of these outcomes:
- Maximising the amount of subsidised housing within our area
- Leveraging of additional funds from other sources, including private debt finance, charitable donations and grants from state and federal governments
- Encouraging a broad range of community housing providers to invest in and operate diverse housing within our area
- Ensuring the continued use of funded projects as subsidised housing
- Ongoing management in line with the applicable regulatory requirements, such as NSW affordable housing guidelines
- Achieving timely delivery using appropriately experienced and capable principals and contractors.
Applications are assessed against these criteria:
- Amount, nature and location of subsidised housing and any other uses being delivered
- Proportion of the total project cost requested as City of Sydney funding including cash, value-in-kind and land
- Proportion of total project cost funded by the applicant and other sources
- Property development experience, expertise and capability of the applicant/deliverer
- Experience in the operation and management of the type of housing by the applicant/manager in compliance with relevant regulations
- Financial capacity of the applicant.

Funding available

The fund’s priority is to leverage private finance for affordable rental housing. It's expected that the total amount of funding for any individual project will not exceed $3 million. Funding cannot be used for consent authority fees and charges.

Funds can be used for:

acquiring land
design and construction
associated development costs
emergency accommodation.

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, an applicant must operate within the local area, or be able to demonstrate benefits for the area’s residents, businesses, workers and/or visitors.

These individuals and organisations can apply:
- Not-for-profit organisations
- For-profit organisations
- Providers of community housing
- Organisations that are part of a consortium that includes a community housing provider.
Funding is not available for projects that:
- directly contravene the eligibility and ethics framework or existing city policies
- are already in receipt of other subsidies or benefits provided by us.