Affordable rental apartments to be constructed in Palmerston

Lia Finocchiaro, Member for Drysdale
 
Matt Conlan
Minister for Housing

The first sod has today been turned on a new development that will deliver 20 affordable apartments for low income earners to rent in Palmerston.

The apartments form a component of 160 new affordable dwellings to be constructed and managed by the Territory’s affordable housing rental company, Venture Housing, over the next two years.

“This is an exciting project for Palmerston that will help ease cost of living pressures for families,” said Housing Minister Matt Conlan.

“The 20 two-bedroom duplex apartments, including two with full disability access, will be constructed by Darwin developer Halikos Group and have been designed by local award-winning architectural firm, Troppo Architects.

“Through Venture Housing and new developments like this one in Driver, the Giles Government is providing a leg-up to those public housing tenants who may be able to move out of public housing, freeing up wait lists. It is also an opportunity for families, on lower incomes, to use the affordable rental properties as a stepping stone into private home ownership down the track.

“These 160 new homes, worth over $60 million, are part of the Giles Government’s plans to drive down the cost of living and ensure families and key workers can continue to live in the Territory and contribute to the development of Northern Australia.”

Local Member for Drysdale, Lia Finocchiaro, attended today’s sod turning and said the new apartments would be a great boost for Palmerston residents.

“The cost of rent is one of the key issues facing Palmerston families and I am pleased to see these apartments which will help ease those pressures when they are rented to eligible tenants at approximately 75 per cent of market rents next year, which at the moment would be no more than $395 per week,” she said.

“This new project follows the completion of nine affordable rental apartments in Driver earlier this year that were tenanted to Palmerston residents through Venture Housing.”

Venture Housing Chief Executive Officer, Raquel Nicholls-Skene said: “This is an important step in Venture’s development in providing affordable houses for Territorians.”

“Supporting Territorians into affordable housing means we can continue to stimulate the economic growth in the region and Venture Housing is excited to be part of that.”

The new affordable rental properties are part of the Government’s Real Housing for Growth plan, which will deliver a total of 2000 new affordable homes across the Territory by 2016-17.

Construction has started and the development is expected to be completed in June 2015.

Source: ProjectLink.com.au

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