The City of Sydney is set to launch an ideas competition in March that will collect and develop concepts for boosting the diversity of housing types across the city, “with a focus on identifying and developing new models to increase affordable housing supply.”

The council decided to hold the competition at a council meeting on 11 February.

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The Alternative Housing Ideas Challenge is open to anyone “with new ideas for the housing sector,” including designers, property professionals, financiers, lawyers, community organizers, policy managers, planners and students.

The aim of the Alternative Housing Ideas Challenge is to “prioritize development models that could be replicated across the local government area and beyond, to enable a broader range of affordable housing options to be considered and delivered.”

The challenge will help to inform the development of the council’s future Community Strategic Plan and Housing Policy.

A yet to be appointed jury will choose six participants to receive $20,000 each to further develop their ideas.

Submissions must adhere to a number of criteria. Most importantly, the model must be either cheaper to buy or rent, and innovation must be displayed in two of the following areas: planning, design, ownership type, tenancy type, management, construction, urban land supply and financing. The entries should also have a high level of amenity and be scalable and replicable.

Source: Architecture AU