Manage affordable rental housing

The following information is to be used by tenancy managers to determine appropriate household income eligibility limits for affordable housing.

1. How household income eligibility limits for affordable housing are determined

Affordable housing is available to households within very low, low and moderate incomes bands.

Definitions of income bands are in accordance with the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, the Affordable Rental Housing State Environmental Planning Policy 2009, Clause 6 (1).and State Environmental Planning Policy No 70 – Affordable Housing (Revised Schemes) Clause 8.

Income bands are based on median incomes in the proportions as per Table 1.

Table 1: Income bands by % of median income

In the planning legislation sited above, two median income measures are used:

• The first is based on the ABS Greater Capital City Statistical Area boundaries, including Central Coast LGA to the north, Blue Mountains LGA to the west and Wollondilly to the south.
• The second is based on the ABS Remainder of NSW Statistical Area. However, these Guidelines use the ‘whole of NSW Statistical Region’ instead of the ‘Rest of NSW statistical Region’.  This is to take account of differences between major regional areas vs remote areas.

These median income measures are generalized and do not take account of household type – single person, couple, couple with two children, single parent with one child, etc. Before the household income limits for affordable housing can be set, they need to be equivalised.

Equivalised income is a measure of household income that takes account of the differences in a household's size and composition, thus enabling comparison of income levels between households of differing size and composition, and reflecting the requirement of a larger household to have a higher level of income to achieve the same standard of living as a smaller household. Equivalised household income eligibility limits for affordable housing are at Table 2.

In general, the household income eligibility limit for the moderate income band sets the maximum income allowable for a household to be eligible for affordable housing. However, affordable housing managers are encouraged to allocate affordable housing to households from all three income bands, and some affordable housing programs require this. To better facilitate this, income limits for all three income bands are included in Tables 2, 3 and 4.

2.    Calculating household income eligibility limits by household size

To determine the household income eligibility limits by household size, take the following steps:

Step 1: Add up the number of adults (18 years old or over) in the household.

Step 2: Add up the number of children (under 18 years old) in the household.

Step 3: For each adult and child add up the income allowance using Table 2.

Table 2: Household income eligibility limits for affordable housing: 2020-21

For convenience, this has already been extrapolated for you in tables 3 and 4. These tables provide a quick reference guide to maximum income levels for a range of different household sizes and combinations. Table 3 is for households in the Sydney statistical district (as defined by ABS) while Table 4 is for the rest of NSW.

Table 3: Household income eligibility limits for Sydney region: 2020-21

Table 4: Household income eligibility limits for rest of NSW: 2020-21

3.    Ongoing eligibility - income limits for existing tenants of affordable housing

Affordable housing tenants are able to earn 25% over the maximum access income limit and still remain eligible. Table 5 shows the ongoing eligibility maximum income limits for Sydney tenants, while Table 6 shows ongoing eligibility maximum income limits for NSW.

Table 5: Ongoing eligibility income limits for Sydney affordable housing tenants: 2020-21

Table 6: Ongoing eligibility income limits for affordable housing tenants in the rest of NSW: 2020-21