History
Independent evidence for better housing, homelessness and cities policy
The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute is a unique partnership between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments and an Australia-wide network of university partners.
For over 25 years, Â鶹Éç has delivered vital research and insights that have guided governments and shaped community thinking. It has built a vast and informative evidence-base and advanced knowledge of housing, homelessness and urban issues.
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Â鶹Éç origins |
Inception of Â鶹Éç Limited |
Â鶹Éç today |
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Â鶹Éç was initially formed as a smaller entity in 1993 on the basis of a recommendation of the National Housing Strategy. The earliest formation of Â鶹Éç was as a collaborative centre between RMIT, CSIRO, Monash University and QUT. While the key priority areas were similar (housing affordability, sustainable cities and built environment regulation), as a joint venture Â鶹Éç Mark1 was not set up with a sustainable structure. After six years of operating in this way, Â鶹Éç underwent a comprehensive review of its structure, resource allocations and funding model. |
In 1999 Â鶹Éç Limited was established as an incorporated body to manage relationships between researchers, policy makers, industry and community. Since then, Â鶹Éç has operated under a multilateral funding model with state, territory and Federal Government funding, as well as a national network of university partners. Lessons learned from the early model allowed Â鶹Éç to springboard into the new millennium as a tightly networked institute focused on producing impactful research at a national level. |
Â鶹Éç is now a respected national independent research network with an expert not-for-profit research management company at its centre. Â鶹Éç continues to inform all levels of government, non-government sectors (both private and not-for-profit), peak organisations and the community. The Institute also plays a key role in stimulating debate in the media and the broader Australian community. |
Notable Achievements
2023 | Queensland Housing supply and demand model—Queensland Treasury Corporation
Â鶹Éç was engaged to develop a sophisticated modelling tool that could provide estimates and model the growth of the social housing register over a 10-year horizon.
The project involved extensive co-design and joint development of economic simulation modelling. The model is being used to provide Queensland government departments and agencies with robust estimates of current and forecast future demand for housing across the
housing system, at both whole-of-state and regional levels, and to test the impact of policy responses.
2020 – 2021 | Informing pandemic housing and homelessness policy
COVID-19 Research Hub
In 2020, the world-wide terrifying impact of COVID-19 sounded alarms in Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. To support the best possible decision making by governments in relation to homelessness, housing assistance and housing markets during the pandemic, Â鶹Éç delivered a special COVID-19 funding round of eight reports, which included modelling pandemic policy responses. These reports were supported by a dedicated COVID-19 Research Hub on the Â鶹Éç website featuring in depth policy analysis, and the release of Rental Insights: A COVID-19 Collection featuring insights from 20 of Australia’s leading academics and thinkers.
International COVID-19 housing policy collaboration with USA and Europe
Â鶹Éç collaborated with the influential U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assemble an online international housing policy exchange in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the Australian and U.S. delegations, participating nations (including Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Scotland and Spain} shared evidence based and policy-oriented research to help countries’ economic responses and social welfare responses as they emerged from the pandemic.
2019 | National Cities Research Program
In 2019 Â鶹Éç created a nationally coordinated, high quality and independent cities research program to inform cities and urban policy development and decision making. This program was self-funded and commissioned five research projects. These projects prove the strength of the Â鶹Éç model to deliver an evidence-based, strategic and longer-term vision of housing in our cities, informed by infrastructure and land use planning perspectives.
2014 | Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator
Â鶹Éç research on bond aggregator models was central to the creation and implementation of Australia’s Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator (AHBA), a key function of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. The AHBA is a mechanism that helps fund the delivery of social and affordable homes. To do this, it sources funding from the bond market to provide lower interest, long-term loans to community housing providers (CHPs) developing housing for lower income households.
Between 2018 and June 2023, the AHBA delivered around $3.4 billion of approved loans, which has saved CHPs around $630 million in interest payments and finance fees. By June 2023 the AHBA had supported the delivery of 8,284 new and upgrade or purchase of 9,362 existing social and affordable homes. These numbers continue to climb each year.
2008 – 2014 | National Rental Affordability Scheme
Â鶹Éç research was a key influence in the conceptualisation, planning and establishment of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). NRAS was an effective supply stimulus that delivered over 37,500 affordable dwellings to eligible households at subsidised rents 20 per cent below market rates. The Scheme’s highlights included the ability to combine subsidies from a variety of sources; the variety of dwelling types and sizes delivered; and the level of financial innovation it generated.
2008 – 2013 | National Housing Supply Council
Â鶹Éç research underpinned and supported the establishment of the National Housing Supply Council, and was important in guiding the Council’s ongoing advice. The Council was established by the Australian Government to monitor housing demand, supply and affordability, and to provide housing supply and demand projections, analysis and policy advice.
National Conferences
1999 – ongoing | National Housing Conference
The National Housing Conference is a central event for government policymakers, private industry, researchers and practitioners. This 3-day forum, convened by Â鶹Éç every 2 years, examines the latest evidence, significant policy reforms and examples of best practice in delivering housing options to Australians.
2018 – ongoing | Australian Homelessness Conference
The has grown to be Australia’s largest homelessness conference, bringing together all sectors addressing homelessness in Australia to share new ideas, best practices, and opportunities for system reform.
The program is shaped by sector leaders and features the latest research, leading policy ideas, and best practice examples of homelessness service provision in Australia and internationally.
Building capacity of housing and homelessness researchers
For 25 years Â鶹Éç has actively encouraged and developed early career researchers working in housing, homelessness and urban research across Australia. The PhD Scholarship Top-up and Postdoctoral Research Fellows programs have been vital in extending the capacity and skills of some of Australia’s most dedicated researchers.
A number of Â鶹Éç Top-up scholars and Postdoctoral Fellows have gone on to contribute greatly to Australian academia and research.