The City of Sydney has revealed the seven shortlisted entries in an ideas competition for alternative housing models.

The competition invited ideas to tackle housing affordability through alternative methods of design, ownership, financing, delivery, building and management.

The shortlist was selected by a jury from 230 submissions and includes options for the creative use of space, innovative financing arrangements and socially sustainable models submitted by architects, planners, researchers and property professionals.

The shortlisted entrants will receive $20,000 to further develop their concepts over the next five months.

Our winning entry, the Equity Housing Model, is inspired by the Nightingale Model, with its deliberative design approach, and capped return on investment for investors, and the Tripod Model which delivers private, affordable and social housing in a 4:3:3 ratio.

The model works by combining government-owned land and socially minded investors with a capped return of 10 percent to develop housing projects. Ownership of the homes would be retained by the government with 60 percent provided as “leasehold ownership” or a lifetime lease agreement, capped at five times the median income. At the end of the lease, ownership is returned to the government. Of the remainder, 20 percent would be affordable rental housing priced at 30 percent of median weekly income or 75 percent of market rental, and the other 20 percent would be social rental housing apportioned to the income of eligible residents.

Residents can move from affordable housing to leasehold ownership as their income increases. Social housing tenants to have their rent incrementally adjusted as their income increases. This would provide housing security for residents while at the same time, the additional income would go towards building more housing in the future.

We are proud to be joined by other amazing architects and housing researchers, including:

Jason Twill & Dr Louise Crabtree - Metropolitan Land Trust Policy

Anita Panov & Andrew Scott - Pixel Project

Robert Pradolin - Pop Up Shelters

Joe Colistra & Nilou Vakil - Sydney Smart Home

Dr Alysia Bennett, Dr Dana Cuff, & Dr Damian Madigan - The Right Size Service

Katherine Sundermann, Alexis Kalagas & Andy Fergus - The Third Way: A Cooperative Affordable Rental Model for Sydney

Photo: Stephen Varady, Competition Registrar, City of Sydney