This New Sydney Development will Include a Large Chunk of Social and Affordable Housing

Macquarie Park will be the site of a huge $2.2 billion residential development — but it's not the high-price high-rise apartment complex that you might have come to expect from Sydney. This new development, which will be partially government funded, will provide a 3000 new homes to Sydneysiders — about 950 of which will provide social housing. A further 128 will be classed as affordable.

As part of its Communities Plus project, the NSW Government this week announced the successful tenderers for the Ivanhoe Estate development as the Aspire consortium, which is made up of Mission Australia and developers Frasers Property Australia and Citta Property Group. The consortium will work with the government to develop housing that is affordable and sustainable for those who need it most.

"The redevelopment will provide $120 million towards social and community infrastructure and $21 million towards social housing programs within the Ivanhoe estate," said Premier Gladys Berejiklian. "This will see services including tailored and personal plans to connect social housing tenants with education, training and employment."

On top of the housing will be a stack of community facilities, including a high school, two childcare centres, an aged care centre, playgrounds, green spaces, gardens and a basketball court. Some commercial interests will be getting a look-in too, with retail shops, a supermarket and cafes all in the plans.

Social housing residents will be able to access on-site Mission Australia offices, which will offer social services, including personalised support for tenants and community programs. "Everyone deserves a safe place to call home and everyone who lives in the Ivanhoe community will have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and connect with people in the neighbourhood, as well as having easy access to education, transport, jobs and services in the area," said Mission Australia CEO, Catherine Yeomans.

Apart from bringing together people of varied social-economic backgrounds, the development has some pretty weighty sustainability goals. The aim is a six-star Green Star Communities Rating and overall carbon neutrality. To that end, water will be caught and reused, recycled materials will form part of construction, roofs will be green and a photovoltaic system will power a whopping 1.5 megawatts.

Ivanhoe Estate — which is located close to Macquarie University and the train station — is part of the government's $22 billion Communities Plus project. Construction is set to start later this year, with the project to be delivered in stages of the next ten to 12 years. It's the first site to be developed; developments in Waterloo, Arncliffe, Telopea and Riverwood are set to follow.