Barak Beacon, Port Melbourne

The Barak Beacon development will deliver 408 modern homes spread across four buildings.  

The new homes will be include social, affordable, market rental and specialist disability accommodation with a mix of one-, 2-, 3 and 4-bedrooms. 

The project will deliver landscaped gardens, a new park, children’s playspace and a community garden. 

You can view the development plans for this project on Engage Victoria

The 87 social homes that were previously at the site were no longer fit for purpose, and the 21,000 sqm site was underutilised. We’ll redevelop the site to provide needed housing just 3 km from Melbourne’s city centre, near public transport, jobs and community services.

Yes. When planning the Barak Beacon project, Homes Victoria investigated the option of refurbishing the Barak Beacon site. 

Due to site constraints and the requirement for social housing buildings to meet updated design standards, our investigations concluded that it was more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable in the long-term to redevelop the homes under a Ground Lease Model.

Our investigations also concluded that it would not be possible to refurbish the site without relocating residents. 

The new homes at Barak Beacon will be all electric with a 5-star Green Star rating, and 7-star NatHERS average rating. This will make them more comfortable to heat and cool all year round.

The new homes will be bright and modern and have been carefully designed to complement the Port Melbourne area.

The buildings will be tenure blind. This means that all social, affordable and private rental homes will be built to the same standard and look the same.

Once the homes are complete from late 2026, the site will be managed by Community Housing Limited (CHL) - a leading community housing provider. CHL will be based in an office at the site providing tenancy management, maintenance and community building programs. 

Yes, previous renters will have a right to return to the new homes once they are completed. 

Relocated renters will have a right to return to the new homes once they are completed. The homes will also be available to affordable and private renters, as well as people on the Victorian Housing Register. This includes people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, older women, Aboriginal Victorians, and people with a disability. 

The Specialist Disability Accommodation will be available for eligible people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. 

We invited the community to tell us their ideas to help plan the Barak Beacon housing site in June and July 2022. 

We also asked the community to provide feedback on plans for the site between February and March 2024.  

Feedback received during consultations helped inform final plans for the site. We would like to thank everyone who took part in this consultation process.

For more information about how we engaged the community and to view the consultation reports for this project, please visit our Engage Victoria webpage for the project.

A Ground Lease Model is a partnership approach to delivering social housing.

 Under the model, Homes Victoria leases land to a consortium to finance, plan, build, manage and maintain housing for a 40-year period. After the 40 years, the land and all homes are returned to Homes Victoria. This means there is no sale of public land. 

This project includes the redevelopment of housing sites in Barak Beacon, Port Melbourne; Bluff Road, Hampton East, Essex Street, Prahran and Simmons Street in South Yarra. 

These projects will all be delivered together as a package by Building Communities from late 2026.

Building Communities is a not-for-profit consortium that Homes Victoria appointed to deliver new homes at the Barak Beacon site. 

The Building Communities consortium includes ICON as the builder, and Community Housing (Vic) Limited as the community housing provider.

• Social housing is an umbrella term that includes community housing and public housing.
• Community housing is affordable, long-term housing that is managed and supported by a community housing provider. Community housing providers are experienced, not-for-profit organisations that provide tenancy management and maintenance services, as well as community building and social support services. The future Barak Beacon housing site will be managed by an on-site community housing provider and therefore fits within this category. 
• Public housing is long-term housing that is managed and supported by the Victorian Government. The Office of Housing provides tenancy management and maintenance services as well as community support services. Previously, the Barak Beacon housing site was managed by the Office of Housing located in South Melbourne.
• Affordable housing is a broad term that describes housing suitable for very low to moderate income households and which is priced so these households can meet essential living costs. Income thresholds are updated each year to reflect median household income per Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data. The on-site community housing provider will manage the application process for affordable homes being delivered within the GLM2 project and tenants will be offered rental agreements of three years to provide stability to residents. 
• Specialist Disability Accommodation refers to a range of housing that is provided for people with high needs relating to a physical disability. It enables residents to live more independently in their home, allowing for other specific supports to be delivered better or more safely. For example, a resident might need a home with reinforced ceilings for a ceiling hoist to be installed.