Michael Ferguson,Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing
The Tasmanian Liberal Government has made the decision to buy the Hobart Workers Club, a once in a century opportunity as part of our clear commitment to look for additional ways to create more housing opportunities.
The centrally located site provides two titles fronting both Liverpool and Goulbourn Streets. The combined available land area is over 1000 square metres.
Our community will benefit from the redevelopment potential of the site and the capacity to meet a range of needs such as service provision and supported accommodation through available buildings, land area and current infrastructure.
We acquire strategic sites for future social and affordable housing to support housing opportunities for Tasmanians in need.
Well located sites like this one are incredibly important because they can provide services close to retail and other health and community services.
Residential development helps increase the liveability of inner-city areas which in turn supports local businesses and builds vibrant communities.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is committed to delivering sustainable housing for our local communities.
We are developing a comprehensive Tasmanian Housing Strategy which will bring together experts in Government, research, community, business and construction to deliver a 20-year vision for a sustainable housing market for Tasmania.
Planning for the strategic long-term use of this site will be part of the suite of strong actions on social and affordable housing we will deliver through the Affordable Housing Action Plan 3.
In the short-term, the site will be leased to the Hobart Workers Club while they transition to a more fit-for-purpose site.
This is part of our record $615 million investment into social and affordable housing, and homelessness initiatives, including our record election commitment of $280 million to extend our building program of new social housing for Tasmanians in need, which is the biggest in this State for decades.
Since the commencement of the Affordable Housing Strategy we have delivered a total of 1,922 new homes, land lots and new places in supported accommodation and homeless services, including 938 since July 2019.
This is on top of the 1,370 dwellings in the pipeline, including 1075 new social housing dwellings, 192 supported accommodation units and 103 homeless accommodation units.
