Sharing with Friends says its first co-housing community for five older women at Darra, in Brisbane's south-west, is now complete, with the first five residents in the process of settling into their new home. Each woman paid $120,000 and signed a 50-year lease, ABC News reported on Monday (9 November), describing the project as an Australian-first co-housing development.
According to the charity's Darra project page, the site has five independent studio units with a larger shared space for communal living, set in a residential neighbourhood. The ABC reported each woman will live in her own private, self-contained studio unit with a kitchen and courtyard, with a shared kitchen and living room and a central courtyard also available.
"It is such a perfect solution for women like me who had a little bit of money but not enough to buy a property," resident Ann Singh told the ABC. Fellow resident Robyn Duffy-Jones, at 60 the youngest of the group, described the project as "a saviour".
Lifetime Leases
The charity says the land purchase was funded through philanthropy, with construction funded by the one-off Housing Contributions from each resident in return for a 50-year lease. Residents cover ongoing community expenses, and simple exit arrangements preserve the capital value of the Housing Contribution.
The ABC reported the $120,000 figure was set because, at the time, it was the average amount a woman at retirement age had in her super fund. The charity owns the land, the residents pay for electricity and rates, and when they leave, or after death, their initial investment is returned with CPI added in.
Sharing With Friends president Susan Davies told the ABC the group was motivated by countless stories of single, older women struggling to find a decent place to live. "We call them the missing middle. They had too much to qualify for social housing, but absolutely not enough to afford to buy anywhere," she said.
The first residents chose each other through a series of workshops run by the charity, the ABC reported. The Queensland Social Enterprise Council, the peak body for the state's social enterprise sector, lists the charity's partnership with the University of Queensland on a developmental research study on the impacts of co-housing on older women.
Planning and the Next Project
Ms Davies said generous philanthropic donations got the project off the ground amid rising construction costs and planning delays. "We've had virtually no help from government," she said.
Sharing with Friends wants to roll out the model across Australia and says local councils and governments need to cut back on red tape and include it in their planning acts. "The system has to change so that we can replicate this quickly," Ms Davies said. With the average woman now having about $150,000 in her super fund, she said the next project would need a buy-in of about $200,000.
Architect Eloise Atkinson, who designed the model pro bono, said the project had to be approved in the boarding house category and that some of the bigger councils should lead the way. "The first couple of years will be the real test," she said.