Launch of the Affordable Housing Hallmark Initiative

The Affordable Housing Hallmark will fund a series of research projects in 2019 that bring together researchers from across the university to explore topics related to affordable housing.

In late May Professor Paul Walker, Dr Kate Raynor and Professor Alan Pert launched the Affordable Housing Hallmark. This initiative brings together researchers from architecture, urban planning, property economics, public health, geography, economics and sociology to acknowledge the complexity of housing systems and their role in supporting or inhibiting sustainability, social justice and economic stability. In Melbourne, home purchase is among the least affordable in the world and there is an acute shortage of low-cost rental housing. The intention of the Hallmark is to continue building a critical mass of affordable housing scholarships to shape international academic debate and respond to contemporary housing problems.

The team leading the project includes Associate Professor Rebecca Bentley, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and Dr Ilan Wiesel, from the School of Geography at the Faculty of Science. The initiative builds on and extends the work of Transforming Housing which was launched in 2013 by Professor Carolyn Whitzman and also draws on the current engagement with DELWP through the Melbourne Housing Expo (IBA Melbourne) project.

The Affordable Housing Initiative will serve as a platform for promoting and generating new affordable housing scholarships at the University of Melbourne. The core leadership team hope to facilitate cross-disciplinary connections and foster new and innovative collaborative research into the provision of quality housing: its design, planning, affordability, accessibility and use. As part of the launch activities a seed-funding round to support new research and inter-disciplinary partnerships was announced.

Further information can be accessed here or by emailing affordable-housing@unimelb.edu.au