ABSTRACT: The idea of balanced social mix, or creating communities with a blend of residents from across different housing tenures and income levels, is a common theme of contemporary housing and planning policies in Australia, the UK and the US that aim to create sustainable communities. In seeking to evaluate this claim, much of the research conducted on social mix attempts to measure any independent effects for disadvantaged residents of living in areas of concentrated poverty compared to more mixed income neighbourhoods. In a nutshell proof is sought that social mix works. As valuable as this research is, commentators point out that limited attention has been paid to explaining how residents understand social mix, or even if from their point of view it matters. The current research starts from residents’ perceptions of social mix, utilising three case studies of social housing estates based in South Australia that have undergone substantial changes to social mix to reduce concentrations of public housing tenants and attract private home owners into the areas.