Unlocking Home Ownership

Abstract

Changes under the NDIS to what choice people with disability will have in regard to housing is also offering the potential for home ownership.

NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding is an opportunity to demonstrate how new and innovative financial products can achieve social impact.

Currently, a lack of scalable legal structures and financial products from mainstream and social lenders is a barrier to home ownership for people with disability. Lenders need to understand how SDA payments can be used as a revenue stream to offer more home ownership products for people with disability.

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has identified specific groups of people with disability that could benefit from shared ownership. We are working with financial institutions to understand how SDA payments can be used as a revenue stream for people with disability to own part of a property or work towards full ownership.

The purpose of this paper is to inform and prompt discussion in the finance sector and among others about ways to address inequity of home ownership for people with disability in Australia. We aim to improve the situation by focusing on options for people receiving NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) payments. We hope that the paper will help financial institutions see what role they can play in making home ownership a reality for more Australians with disability.