National Rental Affordability Scheme round four calls for applications

Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek today announced that round four applications for the National Rental Affordability Scheme round will open on June 14.

This round will encourage applications from investors wanting to build at least 20 new affordable rental homes for low and moderate income households, with priority given to applications to build 100 or more homes. 

Applications for round four will be assessed as they are received. The round will close on December 14, 2010.

Ms Plibersek said the National Rental Affordability Scheme was created to increase the supply of affordable housing low and moderate income earners by building up to 50,000 new affordable rental properties across Australia.

Under the scheme, the Rudd Government has combined with State and Territory Governments to offer incentives to institutional investors and housing providers.

‘Homes under this program are rented out for at least 20 per cent below market rate to tenants who meet income eligibility requirements – including key workers such as nurses, child care workers and police officers.

‘Each of the homes has to be newly constructed, which means that the National Rental Affordability Scheme is also supporting jobs for builders, tradespeople and their suppliers.’

‘Successful applicants currently receive an annual incentive of $9,140 for each approved dwelling, indexed annually to the rental component of the CPI for ten years.

The third round of the Scheme for large scale investment of at least 1,000 NRAS homes remains open until 31 August 2010.

Round Three was targeted at bids of more than 1,000 properties to encourage providers to invest in affordable rental housing at scale.

There are currently nine applications being assessed which would mean almost 13,000 new affordable homes across Australia.

The Rudd Government is investing more than $1 billion in the National Rental Affordability Scheme over the next four years.

The National Rental Affordability Scheme is one part of the Rudd Government’s program to increase the stock of affordable homes across Australia by more than 80,000 by mid-2012.