Across Greater Sydney, the people who care for our communities – nurses, teachers, police officers, paramedics and emergency responders – are being priced out of the very neighbourhoods that rely on them. Long commutes, rental insecurity and unaffordable family-sized housing options are pushing essential works to consider leaving the city or stepping away from the careers they love.
The Federal Government’s recently launched Help to Buy (HTB) shared equity scheme may help some essential workers. But it is not a solution for all essential workers – including those who fall just outside the scheme’s eligibility rules or price caps, yet still need support to remain close to the communities they serve.
HOPE exists for essential workers wherever other pathways stop.
HOPE: A Complementary Solution
HOPE helped it first essential worker to buy a home with a co-investment in November 2022 and has since supported 40 essential workers in total. With the launch of the Federal Government’s HTB scheme, earlier this month, the Government and HOPE schemes are together making shared equity a mainstream solution to address the Australian housing crisis.
While the HTB scheme focuses on lower-income first-home buyers purchasing below median price points, a large group of essential workers sit outside those constraints and remain locked out of homeownership. This is the part of the market where HOPE operates: supporting essential workers who cannot access HTB but still face significant housing barriers.
Many experienced essential workers fall outside government scheme settings. HOPE, however, sees how housing within an essential workers community delivers benefits, not only to the essential worker but to their families, employers and the community as a whole.
As Pat Gooley, Secretary of the Police Association of NSW, recently warned:
“In the inner city, we’re seeing average officer tenure fall to around three years. That isn’t sustainable. Officers aren’t leaving because they want to – they’re leaving because they can’t afford to live anywhere near their station. This is now a workforce issue as much as a housing issue. Without practical solutions like HOPE, we risk losing the experience and leadership our frontline teams rely on.”
This challenge extends across health, education and emergency services. It is a structural issue, and it requires a structural solution. That solution is HOPE.
The HOPE Difference
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- Not just first-time homebuyers: HOPE supports essential workers at every stage of their careers, including early-career staff, mid-career professionals, and those who have already bought an apartment but cannot bridge the gap to a suitable family home. By co-investing in homes in well-located, high-demand suburbs, HOPE reduces upfront and ongoing costs so essential workers can live close to their jobs and build long-term stability.
- No property price caps: Many essential workers need family-appropriate homes within a practical commute to hospitals, police commands or schools, which often sit above the Federal Government’s $1.3m cap. Across HOPE’s portfolio, the average home price is $1.53 million. These are not luxury properties; they are modest, established homes in suburbs where essential workers need to live.
- No income caps: It is not only junior or lower-paid essential workers who are locked out. HOPE’s homeowner data illustrates this clearly:
– Average income for HOPE singles: $129,566
– Average combined income for HOPE couples: $176,740
These essential workers earn above HTB limits yet still fall far short of the levels required to purchase an average family home in Greater Sydney.
- Up to 50% of the value of the property: HOPE contributes up to 50% of the home’s purchase price, providing essential workers genuine buying power in the suburbs they need to live. This level of co-investment is purpose built for metropolitan markets where government support does not reach.
- No quotas: With the appropriate support from private capital (wholesale and institutional investors), HOPE has the ability to help essential workers across Australia. Capital drives capacity and as investment grows, HOPE can scale quickly to meet the demand.
- No tax payer dollars: HOPE’s solution is funded by private capital and the manager is a not-for-profit entity. Investors receive financial returns aligned with property growth and essential workers gain access to homes that would otherwise be impossible.
- Just essential workers: HOPE recognises that essential workers are critical to the functioning of our communities and therefore a just cause for housing solutions. Our policies, processes and asset selection approach are intentionally designed to support this cohort while mitigating the potential inflationary effects associated with broader demand-side solutions.
A Call to Investors
Essential workers are part of our national infrastructure – but their ability to live near the communities they serve is rapidly eroding. Government programs like Help to Buy will support some households, yet the housing needs of mid-career essential workers lie firmly outside those policy boundaries.
Closing that gap requires capital.
For investors looking to put capital to work where it matters, essential-worker housing isn’t a niche – it’s a necessity. HOPE is the platform that makes it possible. HOPE is a not-for-profit fund manager. Every dollar of performance flows to investors and the essential workers they support, not to the fund manager’s profits.
For investors, the proposition is clear:
The Fund targets net 10%+ p.a., with returns that have low correlation to traditional asset classes like equities and fixed income1, providing genuine diversification. The underlying asset – established family homes – are resilient, supply-constrained and historically stable.And every investment delivers something rare: direct, measurable social impact that supports essential workers and their families, strengthens the essential workforce and benefits our communities.
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