Across Victoria there are a number of public housing estates that are in the process of being redeveloped via the Public Housing Renewal Program (PHRP) and the Big Housing Build (BHB). This is the largest program of works in Victoria’s history, where existing public housing is being demolished to make way for future residential development with a mix of private and social housing.

The BHB uses a Ground Lease Model (GLM) approach for delivering the new housing, of which there are two projects identified by the Government of Victoria (GLM1 and GLM2) organised across seven public housing estates. This report provides a description and analysis of the Ground Lease Model and provides a background to the current renewal paradigm. The Government of Victoria has stated that the purpose of public housing renewal is to increase the amount of social housing and to replace old or dilapidated stock that has not been sufficiently maintained or repaired by the responsible agency, Homes Victoria.

The aim of this report is to present an analysis of publicly available information about this investment to a general readership to aid greater understanding and public scrutiny. The report has four sections. The first section provides a brief background of the policy context and public housing renewal in Victoria. In the second, the authors analyse the Ground Lease Model approach used by government in the current round of renewal, the Big Housing Build. The third section provides a case study of one estate – Barak Beacon in Port Melbourne – to evaluate the cost and impacts of the renewal and GLM approach. Section four provides recommendations based on this analysis.