 |
| Residents are unhappy about the government's plans to sell of hundreds of public housing properties. |
 |
| Residents are unhappy about the government's plans to sell of hundreds of public housing properties. |
Similar freehold properties have sold for as much as $3 million each. The six properties will be auctioned, and the public housing residents in these properties will be relocated, the NSW government announced Saturday.
The marketing of the properties will begin next week. Justifying the eviction of many tenants who have lived in the properties for their lifetimes, ministers said today the sale would reinvest millions of dollars back into the state's social housing system. For every house sold in Millers Point, the government would "build three houses in many other suburbs of Sydney," the Minister for Family and Community Services, Gabrielle Upton, and Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, said in a statement. "While we are very conscious that this involves relocating tenants who live in these properties, a tough decision had to be taken that will benefit far more people in need of housing assistance," said Ms Upton. "It simply is not fair to the 58,000 applicants on the social housing waiting list for the government to spend hundreds of millions of dollars maintaining properties which are not suitable for public housing." Of the 293 government owned properties, 214 are heritage listed.
The government claims it would cost as much as $100 million to restore and maintain the properties. The average maintenance bill of each property averages around $14,500 a year, compared with $3,000 to $3,500 across the rest of the state. The sale of the properties is expected to rapidly gentrify one of Sydney's oldest and grittiest neighbourhoods. An agent who has sold former public housing previously told Fairfax Media that once it was gentrified "it will be such an exclusive suburb,''
Di Jones agent Andrew Stewart said. ''I don't know of an area in Sydney at all that would have the attributes of the housing of this area. You are right on the waterfront but also a short walk to the CBD, ferries just down the street. Maybe Kirribilli is similar, but most of Kirribilli is apartments.'' Mr Perrottet said the sales would test the market, but wouldn't be rushed. "The properties in Millers Point are of important historical significance for the people of NSW and we don't want to rush the planning or the sales processes," he said. He said the process of relocating tenants was being done with "sensitivity and compassion." A Tenant Relocation Team was "going to great lengths to satisfy their specific requests." Three of the six properties are located in Dawes Point, and the rest are in Millers Point. Tennants of the six properties have already been relocated.
http://www.goodfruitandvegetables.com.au/news/metro/national/general/nsw-government-reveals-first-millers-point-public-housing-properties-to-be-sold-off/2705034.aspx
