Eurobodalla Housing Strategy

Project: Council is developing a Housing Strategy to meet demand for new homes. It will encourage greater housing diversity and affordability over the next 20 years.

Timeframe: October 2022 to late 2025

Status: In progress

Cost and funding: $55,000

Page last updated: October 2025

Project details

We are working to:

  • deliver a draft Housing Strategy
  • identify the demand for new and different housing types over the next 20 years
  • identify actions to provide the right housing to meet this demand. We will examine the:
    • capacity of existing residential land to provide homes
    • types and sizes of homes needed
    • best location for new homes.

Benefits to the community:

A Housing Strategy would help Council to carry out actions that will lead to:

  • people ageing within their community by having options to move into a smaller home. This also makes larger homes available for larger households
  • more smaller homes closer to existing services and shops - this will make our towns more walkable
  • working-aged people staying in or moving to Eurobodalla
  • more affordable rent and house prices by providing greater housing diversity
  • more social and affordable housing options
  • building new homes that meet the future demand for smaller houses
  • less homelessness
  • a more diverse, vibrant and resilient community, and a stronger local economy.

Background and purpose

Council has committed to improving housing in Eurobodalla.

  • A Housing Strategy will help Council meet the action in the Local Strategic Planning Statement to encourage greater housing diversity and affordability.
  • Council’s Community Strategic Plan includes working in partnership to encourage and facilitate greater housing diversity and affordability.
  • Council’s Delivery Program and Operational Plan includes an action to develop a Housing Strategy with a focus on addressing affordability.
  • Council is advocating for the NSW Government to improve housing supply, diversity, and affordability.

Affordable housing and financial housing stress

The simplest measure of housing affordability compares housing costs to gross household income. Generally:

  • Housing is considered 'affordable' if housing costs are not more than 30% of the household’s income.
  • If a low-to-moderate income household spends more than 30% of the household income on housing, they are considered to be in financial housing stress.

Social housing

Social housing is government-subsidised short and long-term rental housing. Social housing is usually for people or households:

  • on low incomes
  • who have experienced homelessness or are at risk of homelessness
  • experiencing family violence
  • with other special housing needs.

Affordable rental housing

Affordable rental housing is government-subsidised rental housing offered below market price.

Affordable rental housing is usually targeted to households on low-to-moderate incomes. It is open to a broader range of household incomes than social housing. This means you can earn more income and you're still eligible for affordable rental housing.

  • In NSW, non-profits or private organisations usually manage affordable rental housing.
  • Rent is priced so it's affordable (eg, not more than 30% of the household income).

Complexity and contributing factors

Providing enough homes of the right size and style in the right location is complex.

  • Eurobodalla needs more homes to house the growing population and improve the supply of homes in the market.
  • Most existing homes here are three or more-bedroom houses, with one or two people living in them.
  • We need more homes with one or two bedrooms to cater for growth in smaller households.
  • The cost of homes to buy or rent in Eurobodalla has greatly increased in recent years.
  • There are not enough homes to rent or buy - and even fewer that are affordable for existing residents.

Lack of supply and affordability puts pressure on vulnerable members of our community. Eurobodalla's homelessness services provide local support. However, all levels of government need to work together to address the housing crisis.

Other factors that add to the complexity of housing include:

  • large infrastructure projects that need housing for workers
  • constraints like flooding, vegetation, and bushfire-prone land
  • linking with services like transport, sewer, and water
  • employment opportunities.

The Housing Strategy will identify actions Council can take to improve housing. This includes key advocacy issues the NSW Government and Australian Government should address.

Advocacy

Council is advocating for the NSW Government to improve housing supply, diversity, and affordability.

In mid-2021, Council made a submission to the NSW Government’s Regional Housing Taskforce consultation.

Housing Strategy documents

Project updates

October 2025

  • We will present the draft Housing Strategy to councillors at the Ordinary Council meeting on 28 October 2025 to seek adoption of the strategy.
  • We amended the draft Housing Strategy to align with feedback we received from the community during two separate public exhibition periods.

April 2025

  • We asked the community for their feedback on which actions from the scoping report we should consider to include in the draft Housing Strategy.
  • The scoping report was on public exhibition for community feedback from 21 March 2025 to 23 April 2025. We are now collating the feedback received.

March 2025

  • We presented the draft Housing Strategy at the 19 November 2024 Council meeting. We are now required to prepare a scoping report to inform the draft Housing Strategy.
  • We presented the scoping report at the Council meeting of 25 February 2025 for Council to endorse public exhibition of the report. The scoping report includes a comparative analysis of several affordable housing strategies from adjacent local government areas. The report also provides us with a detailed list of actions we can consider to include in the draft Housing Strategy.
  • We placed the scoping report on public exhibition from 21 March 2025 to 23 April 2025. We sought the community's feedback on which actions from the scoping report we should consider to include in the draft Housing Strategy.

November 2024

  • At the Ordinary meeting of Council on 19 November 2024, Council resolved to defer the decision on the Housing Strategy. This allows for further detailed discussion, including:
    • further developing strategies and mechanisms to help deliver affordable housing
    • social and community housing
    • housing that is affordable for the local workforce to buy or rent.

August 2024 

  • Council will consider submissions received from the public exhibition period at a future Council meeting once it resolves elections and appointment of the incoming Council.

July 2024

  • The draft Housing Strategy was on public exhibition for community feedback from 29 May 2024 to 10 July 2024.
  • We received over 100 submissions. Council will consider these submissions before it adopts the strategy.

May 2024

  • At the Ordinary Council meeting on 21 May 2024, Council endorsed the public exhibition of a draft strategy.
  • We exhibited the draft Housing Strategy for community members to provide feedback from 29 May 2024 to 10 July 2024.

January - April 2024

  • We are preparing a draft strategy. We're using research, information from agencies, and feedback we received from community members via the survey.
  • It took longer for us to prepare the strategy than we expected. This is because we only received the required background consultant reports in November and December 2023.
  • We will exhibit a draft for community feedback before Council adopts the strategy.

July 2023

  • A long list of possible actions emerged after we engaged with stakeholders, and from feedback we received from the community.
  • We are now reviewing and checking in with key stakeholders to choose the actions that apply to our local situation and opportunities.
  • We are aiming to have a draft local Housing Strategy available for community feedback before the end of the year.

December 2022

  • We asked community members to complete a short survey to tell us what they'd like to see in a local Housing Strategy. The survey is now closed and we will use the feedback we received to help guide this project.

November 2022

  • We have started to investigate housing supply and needs. We are using census data, and engaging with housing and service providers and NSW Government agencies.

More information

You can sign up to receive updates throughout the project:

For more information, contact Council's Senior Strategic Planner, Mr Hamish Sinclair: