From mixed tenure development to mixed tenure neighbourhoods

Demonstrating how mixed tenure dwelling design can enhance outcomes for individuals, neighbours and the community more broadly.

  • Investigators

  • Funded by

    • Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

  • Undertaken within

Integrating people and places through the development of mixed tenure neighbourhoods. Image: Rutger Pasman
Integrating people and places through the development of mixed tenure neighbourhoods. Image: Rutger Pasman

Upscaling mixed tenure housing from individual developments to neighbourhood-scale models could enhance the diversity, quality and affordability of suburban living.

Dr Lee-Anne Khor

This project identifies the benefits of, and expanded opportunities for, mixed tenure development. In Australia, new or renewed subsidised housing stock is reliant on leveraging market values of public land assets through tenure diversification. While mixed tenure policies have become a tool for increasing affordable and social housing and fostering equitable social outcomes, land-value models have led to an uneven distribution of mixed tenure developments; typically large scale, fast tracked inner-urban renewal sites. New mechanisms are needed to facilitate a broader range and distribution of mixed tenure schemes.

The multi-disciplinary research team will undertake a comparative examination of mixed tenure (mixed tenure) development outcomes and opportunities in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. All States recently held ‘missing middle’ design initiatives and announced dedicated programs for social housing renewal. The research will establish success-measures for mixed tenure outcomes to support planning policies for housing delivery at neighbourhood scale, offering greater diversity of public, community/not-for-profit, or private housing options and renewal of more metropolitan locations.  Applied to design scenarios for mixed tenure neighbourhoods will be tested on strategic assemblies of small-scale public housing assets in ‘greyfield’ suburbs.

The mixed-methods research approach will identify opportunities for increasing the quality, diversity and frequency of mixed tenure developments, incorporating a range of affordable housing products, across metropolitan areas in four states. This project will also identify a pipeline of strategic sites that have the best opportunity to deliver quality mixed tenure outcomes.