Federal housing investment delivers Wollongong affordable housing in high-demand coastal market

The Illawarra region will receive 145 new affordable rental dwellings funded through the Housing Australia Future Fund, the federal government confirmed, with the City of Wollongong the primary beneficiary in an investment responding to one of the most acute coastal rental affordability crises in New South Wales.

Wollongong's rental market has experienced extraordinary pressure over the past three years, with median weekly rents for a two-bedroom dwelling having risen from $360 to $500 — a 38 per cent increase driven by a combination of sea-change migration from Sydney, the growth of the University of Wollongong's student population, and a structural undersupply of new housing in a local government area where geography and planning constraints limit development opportunities.

Federal Housing Minister Julie Collins said the Wollongong investment targeted the specific affordability failure in coastal NSW regional markets, where the combination of proximity to Sydney and lifestyle appeal had pushed rents to levels unaffordable for the key workers — nurses, teachers, early childhood educators, aged care workers — who the community depended on. "If Wollongong can't house its nurses, Wollongong Hospital cannot staff its wards. Federal housing investment is not just a social program — it is workforce and economic policy," she said.

Wollongong City Council agreed to facilitate accelerated planning approvals for the HAFF-funded projects, providing infrastructure contributions from the council's capital program to reduce the per-dwelling cost of the community housing providers delivering the project. The council's affordable housing strategy, adopted last year, identifies a need for 2,400 affordable dwellings in the LGA to address the current gap between affordable supply and demand.

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