Amid a national housing crisis, the City Futures Research Centre (CFRC) at UNSW Sydney has been awarded a $1 million grant by the office of the NSW Chief Scientist to establish the Housing Analytics Lab (HAL), aiming to support policy makers with evidence-driven housing solutions.
The Housing Analytics Lab will be a hybrid physical/digital facility located in Tech Central, South Eveleigh.
UNSW will lead a consortium of industry, academic, government, and not-for-profits to establish the facility.
The two-year grant is part of the Commonwealth government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Support Program and in partnership with the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) NCRIS Facility.
“We recognise the vital role NCRIS facilities play in supporting the state’s research and development sector,” Hugh Durrant-Whyte, NSW chief scientist and engineer, said in a media release.
“These facilities enable the most advanced research and commercialisation opportunities to happen right here in NSW. These activities are a critical driver for innovation in the state's economy.”
Professor Chris Pettit, director of the CFRC, highlighted the lab’s capabilities.
“The Housing Analytics Lab is a continuation of the work the CFRC has done in collaboration with AURIN and others in creating the Australian Housing Data Analytics Platform over the past two years,” Pettit said.
The lab will house advanced tools including a database with a map dashboard of all historic and live planning approvals across NSW and Australia, an AI classifier of planning assessments, and a virtual housing assistant powered by generative AI.
The HAL will facilitate evidence-driven policy testing across various parameters, from assessing housing supply and demand potentials by LGA to tracking housing pipelines through data on existing DAs.
“Using real-time housing datasets, multiple scenarios powered by big data and machine learning can be rapidly created and compared, allowing decision makers to assess policy options,” Pettit said.
The Housing Analytics Lab will provide insights into real-time supply pipeline of land zoned for future housing, new greenfield lots ready for development, the delivery of multi-unit apartment developments, and the current and projected housing requirements for social and affordable housing. Government data sharing arrangements will make these insights possible.
Claire Annesley, UNSW dean of arts, design, and architecture, highlighted the lab’s impact.
“The City Futures Research Centre is leading the creation of a lab that will offer the best modelling and digital solutions to the problems of urban planning,” Annesley said. “This is a huge win for getting the very latest analytical tools into the hands of decision-makers.”
The Housing Analytics Lab will be developed in partnership with Australian Research Data Commons, Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network, Commonwealth Bank, Community Housing Industry Association NSW, FrontierSI, Housing Australia, MIRVAC, PEXA, SGS Economics and Planning, Shelter, and Tenants Union NSW.
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