About the project
The Bluff Road public housing site is being redeveloped as part of the Victorian Government’s $5.3 billion Big Housing Build. This is the largest ever investment into social and affordable housing and will tackle housing affordability by:
- constructing more than 9,300 new social homes
- constructing 2,900 affordable homes
- creating 10,000 jobs per year over 4 years across Victoria.
We’re redeveloping Bluff Road through a housing redevelopment model called a ground lease. Under the ground lease model, we will lease land at the sites to a project group. The project group will design, build, manage and maintain the housing for the next 40 years, enabling the land to remain in public ownership.
Modern, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable homes will replace the existing 146 social homes at Bluff Road. These homes will include a mix of social, affordable and market rental homes. The redevelopment will achieve a minimum 10% increase in social housing and provide more housing options for people on low and medium incomes.
What you need to know
The 31,200 sqm site at Bluff Road is located just 17kms from Melbourne’s CBD in the infrastructure-rich suburb of Hampton East in the City of Bayside. The site has land capacity to provide more homes for more Victorians, and is ideally positioned close to public transport, jobs, and community services. (View on the map.)
The new homes at Bluff Road will include 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes to better meet housing demand in Victoria. Future housing at Bluff Road will also include flexible design features that enable the mix of bedrooms in homes across the development to be adapted over time to accommodate changes in housing demand.
New homes at Bluff Road will include specialist disability accommodation.
New homes at the site will be more comfortable and less expensive to heat and cool with a 5-star Green Star rating, and 7-star NatHERS average rating.
The redeveloped Bluff Road site will better integrate with the surrounding neighbourhood and provide quality spaces that the wider community can enjoy.
The project will create approximately 4500 jobs across the Bluff Road site and the other ground lease model sites located in Port Melbourne, Prahran and South Yarra.
Community consultation
Between Tuesday 28 June and Wednesday 20 July 2022, we hosted stage one community consultation. Community consultation helps encourage early ideas to shape the future of the site. Thank you to everyone who took part in this consultation process.
Engagement included:
- a community drop-in session,
- community focus group,
- an online survey,
- and targeted interviews and meetings with key stakeholders.
You can read more about stage one engagement, including a detailed report on the outcomes of stage one engagement for Bluff Road on the Engage Victoria website.
In mid to late 2023, we will carry out a second stage of community consultation. This stage of consultation is likely to be guided by our Clause 52.20 Big Housing Build planning pathway.
What happens next?
Our current priority is to support the relocation of current residents at Bluff Road by mid 2023, when demolition of this site will commence.
We are also currently going through a confidential procurement process to identify a suitably qualified project group. This group will redevelop Bluff Road in Hampton East, as well as sites in Port Melbourne, Prahran and South Yarra.
We have provided feedback from our community engagement to the competing project groups so they use community input to prepare their proposals.
We will appoint a suitably qualified project group around mid to late-2023. The project group will deliver the redevelopment of Barak Beacon and our other sites in the ground lease model project.
Later in 2023, we will host Stage 2 community engagement to consult with community about proposed future plans for Barak Beacon.
Pending community consultation and planning approval processes, the main works construction will commence in 2024 with renters able to return to their new housing from 2026.
Target timeline
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Project announcement
December 2021
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Residents at Bluff Road are supported to relocate
December 2021 onwards
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Stage 1- community consultation
June-July 2022
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Site demolition
Early to mid 2023
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Appointment of consortia to deliver project
Mid-2023
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Stage 2 community consultation
Mid-late 2023
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Construction commencement (pending approvals)
2023
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Construction completion
From late 2025
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Renters welcomed back to new homes
From early 2026
Contact us
Email icon:For more information about the redevelopment of Bluff Road in Hampton East please email enquiries@homes.vic.gov.au
Phone icon:1800 950 100
Translating and interpreting service
For languages other than English, please call 131 450.