Simmons Street, South Yarra

New homes at Simmons Street have been carefully designed to complement the South Yarra area. 

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

The new homes at Simmons Street will be all-electric with a 5-star Green Star rating, and a 7-star NatHERS average rating, making them more comfortable and affordable to heat and cool all year round. 

Relocated renters will have a right to return to the new homes once they are completed from late 2026.  

The new homes will be available to people on the Victorian Housing Register, including older women, Aboriginal Victorians, people living with a disability, people who may be homeless or at risk of homelessness, those experiencing family violence, and other Victorians who need affordable rental or private rental housing. 

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

Yes, previous residents have the right to return to the new homes once they are completed, based on their ongoing eligibility.   

The Simmons Street site will be managed by community housing provider, Community Housing Limited (CHL). CHL will be based on site to provide tenancy management, maintenance and community engagement programs for residents.  

We invited the community to share their ideas to help shape the future of the Simmons Street site in June and July 2022, and we asked community members to provide feedback on the project's development plans between November and December 2023.

We received feedback during these consultations that helped inform the final plans for the redevelopment of the site, and we would like to thank those involved in the process.

For more information about the engagement process and to read the project's consultation reports, please visit our Engage Victoria webpage.

A Ground Lease Model is a partnership approach to delivering housing. Under the model, Homes Victoria leases land to a project group to finance, design, build, manage and maintain housing for a 40-year term. After the 40 years, the land and all homes are returned to Homes Victoria. This means there is no sale of public land.  

Building Communities is a not-for-profit group that we appointed to deliver new homes under a Ground Lease Model at Simmons Street, South Yarra.  

The Building Communities consortium includes the builder ICON, and the community housing provider CHL.