Under the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing (NPARIH), the Australian Government provides resources to state and territory governments to improve housing conditions and expand housing options in remote Indigenous communities. This paper lays the foundation for an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of property and tenancy management arrangements in terms of tenant outcomes and the efficiency of service delivery. It builds on research undertaken in 2013 which investigated the forms tenancy management arrangements have taken in the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia and what factors have influenced these decisions (Habibis et al. 2014). It is now seven years since NPARIH was established and it is therefore timely to review how arrangements are working given the substantial investment in these communities and the need to ensure the arrangements for service delivery are sustainable over the long term.

This paper outlines the evidence base that informs the study’s research questions and empirical methods. It summarises the international and Australian literature, analyses the policy framework, outlines the progress of reforms and the tenancy management arrangements and describes the methods to be used in the investigation.