- Sydney Anglican Property is redeveloping two church sites with Sustainable Development Group
- St Paul’s Anglican, Bankstown, is planned for 185 social and affordable homes
- A former church site in Regents Park is planned for 74 social homes
- Both won federal Housing Australia Future Fund backing
The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is turning two church properties into about 260 social and affordable homes, The Weekly Source reported in March 2025.
Sydney Anglican Property, working with Sustainable Development Group (SDG), prepared development applications for both sites, which were approved for funding under Round 1 of the federal Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). At St Paul’s Anglican Church in Bankstown, 19 kilometres south-west of Sydney’s centre, the plan is for 185 social and affordable homes for essential workers, seniors and women over 55. As a project worth more than $30 million, it is being assessed as a State Significant Development.
The second site, a former church in Regents Park, 22 kilometres west of the city, is planned for 74 social housing homes for single women over 55 and families in need, to be considered by Cumberland City Council. SDG says the Regents Park building will be six storeys, with homes for women over 55 and families affected by domestic violence. Anglicare Sydney will run both sites.
“These two projects are part of a wider urban renewal program across the Anglican Church’s Sydney Diocese aimed at activating church properties with a range of integrated social infrastructure,” said Sydney Anglican Property chief executive Ross Jones.
The model links church land, a church welfare agency and government housing finance. The diocese contributes the site, the state provides long-term funding and the church’s own agency manages the homes.
Jamaica’s arrangements are different, but some of the pieces exist here too: churches with land in town centres, church-run welfare bodies and the NHT. The Sydney projects show how those pieces can be combined to house older women and families at risk, if churches are willing to plan for it.
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