26 July, 2023

$500,000 Investment To Boost Housing Supply

The Capital City Committee (CCC) is investing $500,000 to explore opportunities to convert vacant above-shop premises into apartments in Adelaide’s CBD.

The shared funding agreement, between the Government of South Australia and the City of Adelaide, follows the CCC Adaptive Re-use Forum held at the Adelaide Town Hall in May.

Forum attendees included over 90 key CBD property owners, developers, builders, housing advocates, officers of government agencies, and members of academia.

Finding adaptive re-use opportunities within the Adelaide CBD would not just increase the city’s housing supply but help grow Adelaide’s population and its diversity targets.

The joint investment would fund a range of initiatives, including the role of a project lead who would audit existing CBD built form stock, review the incentives for property owners, and closely assess planning and regulatory reforms to best enable adaptive re-use.

This would augment the contribution already made to housing supply through residential development, student housing, mixed use developments and forms of social housing.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the State Government was implementing a range of policies geared towards pushing down house and rental prices and getting more South Australians into homes.

“We are doing everything we can to ease housing pressures and adaptive reuse is an innovative way of bringing housing to market quickly,” he said.

“This plan also has the added benefit of breathing more life into the city at a time when major events are providing a boost to the local hospitality industry and wider economy.”

Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the funding boost is an important step in helping tackle the housing crisis. 

“For cities with vacant above-shop premises, there is an opportunity for adaptive re-use to, if not fill the void, help take the edge off the housing crisis.

“Adaptive re-use is also fast. While major developments can take years, converting an office into an apartment can take anywhere from six to nine months, depending on the site.”

Following the CCC Adaptive Re-use Forum, a discussion paper is being progressed that assesses in greater detail the opportunities and issues that were captured to inform the work of this initiative.

For more information: https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/ccc

Matt Halliwell