Social and Cost Rental Housing

The Housing Commission made several recommendations about social and cost rental housing. Two of these are especially important and would require major changes to policy, law, and funding if they were to be put in place:

• Recommendation 32: Build cost rental housing on a large scale and make it the main way to provide both affordable and social rented homes.
• Recommendation 45b: Over time, combine social and cost rental housing into one affordable rental system. This system would be based on covering costs and would serve both low-income and some middle-income households.

To explore how these changes could work, the Department of Housing will run a pathfinder project. This project will help identify what reforms are needed and test how they might be implemented.

The project will start immediately and be up and running by the second quarter of 2027. It will be reviewed over three years, until 2030, and a report will be prepared afterwards for all stakeholders to consider