Housing Innovation Network Grant Program Webinar

Housing Innovation Network (HIN) Grants Program — Business Summary

Program purpose & strategy

• Goal: Increase adoption of local innovation into the delivery and maintenance of social housing in NSW.
• How it fits broader policy:
  • NSW Industry Policy missions: Housing, Net Zero & Energy Transition, Local Manufacturing
  • NSW Innovation Blueprint action: Housing Innovation Network to connect stakeholders to drive development, demonstration, deployment, and commercialization of new housing technologies
• Core model: A challenge-based, pilot funding mechanism that links Homes NSW operational environments with NSW-based SMEs offering solutions (including prop tech and housing tech).

Operating model / execution playbook (what winners get)

• Two-part support after selection:
  • Investment NSW: provides grant funding to pilot
  • Homes NSW: provides access to its operating environment and staff to test, trial, and improve the solution
• Outcome expectation:
  • A solution field-tested with a potential customer
  • Homes NSW gains practical understanding of how solutions can improve social housing delivery/maintenance via:
    • faster
    • lower cost
    • more sustainable operations

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Grant structure (key terms)

• Funding type: Open competitive grant (1-stage application)
• Funding pool: $1.8 million total
• Grant size: Up to $250,000 per project
• Coverage: 100% of total eligible pilot costs
• No minimum grant amount
• Code contributions: Not required (voluntary only)
• Eligible applicants (examples):
  • NSW-headquartered SMEs (business eligibility per guidelines)
  • Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander corporations
  • NSW universities / publicly funded research organizations
    • If successful, they must spin out a business so Investment NSW can fund via a business funding agreement (grant is business-focused)

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Eligible solution requirements (business logic)

• Must address one of nine specific challenge areas.
• Solution maturity:
  • Must be beyond early-stage
  • Suitable for pilot testing
  • Either:
    • Not yet commercialized, or
    • Commercialized in other settings but not yet tested in NSW social housing
• Repurposing is encouraged (e.g., selling into private housing, schools, hospitals, transport contexts—then adapting to social housing).

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Evaluation framework (assessment criteria)

Applications are scored against 4 criteria, with sub-components:

1. Challenge fit & benefits

   • Measurable value: how well the solution addresses the challenge + value proposition
   • Long-term public benefit & alignment: alignment with NSW social housing priorities/investments

2. Deliverability of the pilot

   • Plan: clear, realistic, good value for money, risk considered
   • Resourcing: identified resources + considered access/support from Homes NSW
   • Team capability: technical + commercial ability to run the pilot and capture value

3. Commercial viability & scale-up potential

   • Innovation: differentiation vs existing market solutions
   • Market opportunity & demand: market size, customers, assumptions
   • Go-to-market & commercialization strategy: adoption path and scaling approach

4. Financial viability

   • Organization must demonstrate it can manage the pilot with grant funding (important for newer startups)

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Timeline & milestones (execution cadence)

• Applications open: ongoing
• Closes: Wednesday 9 September 2026 (late applications not considered)
• Successful applicants notified by: November 2026
• Earliest grant activity start: Q4 2026
• Pilot duration: up to 12 months
• Expected completion for most projects: by Q4 2027

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The nine Homes NSW challenges (operational problem statements)

Challenge 1: “Open kit of parts” for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)

• Objective: Move from overly bespoke designs to standardized, interoperable components that can be combined into faster, lower-risk builds.
• What a good solution looks like:
  • Components (e.g., wall/floor systems) that slot together with other suppliers’ systems
  • Compatibility with BIM / CAD workflows
  • Configurable digital + physical product integration
  • Support factory-based delivery to minimize waste and improve performance
• Reference example mentioned: “System 600” as baseline compatibility

Challenge 2: Auto-populating planning due diligence feasibility templates

• Context: Feasibility work currently involves manual Excel/Word templates and data copied from many systems.
• Objective: Automate data ingestion into structured templates to reduce:
  • duplication/copy-paste
  • error risk
  • manual effort
• Need: integration into Excel/Word templates structured to planning legislation clauses (dynamic as legislation changes)
• Data sources mentioned (examples):
  • NSW Planning portal/spatial viewer
  • Homes NSW property viewer
  • “SEED mapping” (biodiversity)
  • metroMap / Google Maps
  • Land title documents (often currently PDFs → manual)
  • “Before you dig” (infrastructure constraints)
  • Transport NSW OPAL / bus timetable accessibility info

Challenge 3: One-stop site feasibility tool (visual block options / yield accuracy)

• Objective: Replace approximate tools (e.g., yield-from-GFA only) with something that:
  • synthesizes compliance, legislation, and site risk
  • produces a clear visual development fit/diagram
  • yields clearer, more accurate yield counts by typology and design constraints
• Scope: ideally works across multiple typologies (granny flats → ~100-unit apartments), and integrates with:
  • MMC approaches
  • government architects’ established multi-dwelling/apartment “patent books”
• Current pain: pulling info from PDFs/Word docs → time-consuming synthesis

Challenge 4: Smart wall systems & façade elements (durable, low-maintenance, tenure-blind)

• Tenant/asset context:
  • Many tenants are aging-in-place (approx 93% rely on age/disability/pension income)
  • Need accessibility, wellbeing, varying mobility, and mental health considerations
• Design priorities:
  • Durable, impact-resistant, low-maintenance wall/façade solutions
  • Improve running costs for tenants (thermal performance)
  • “Tenure blind” appearance (must look like quality private market developments)
  • Prefers refinement/adaptation of existing products over reinventing fully new ones
• Broader outcomes: sustainability/circularity, reuse, retrofit of existing buildings, cultural design elements, neurodiversity/wellbeing supports
• Energy generation noted as least critical among criteria (per speaker)

Challenge 5: Automating scope creation from maintenance condition surveys

• Operational stats cited:
  • Portfolio: ~126,000 properties (Homes NSW)
  • Managed by others (CHPs): ~35,000; Homes NSW: >90,000
  • Annual inspections: ~45,000 properties/year (~one-third of portfolio)
  • Work program outputs: ~4,000–6,000 properties/year
• Current process: survey results → manual conversion into property-specific scope using inspectors + standard schedule of rates; includes desktop analysis but largely manual.
• Objective: generate “scope straight from survey outputs” using automated techniques to:
  • speed response time
  • roll out programs more efficiently
  • improve scope accuracy and reduce variation during construction
  • better estimate future liability for remaining properties beyond the yearly work program
• Homes NSW will provide to pilots: typical survey framework, schedule of rate work items, and sample test cases

Challenge 6: Automating maintenance contract audit checks (reduce manual, improve financial integrity)

• Operational stats cited:
  • Reactive maintenance request/work orders: ~300,000/year
  • Including program/servicing: ~600,000+ work orders/year
  • Each work order: ~3 to 200 line items
  • Current: 9 auditors doing desktop audits
  • Audit types include:
    • process review + internal/external regulatory compliance
    • expenditure audit (warranty recall, duplicate works, recovery actions)
• Objective: automate audit checks (incl. financial aspects) to:
  • detect errors/risk/overclaims faster
  • reduce reliance on low-volume random sampling
  • improve contractor performance decisions
• Approach direction mentioned: considering AI tools to identify potentially problematic work orders rather than sampling

Challenge 7: Inspection & digital scoping for faster, safer maintenance (root-cause clarity)

• Operational context & pain:
  • Hundreds of thousands of maintenance works annually
  • Trades may be sent multiple times because maintenance issues are difficult to assess and root cause isn’t identified
• Impact areas:
  • higher costs from rework/trade callouts
  • tenant disruption and safety/reduced peace
  • potential relocation if property becomes uninhabitable
  • complaints/reputational risk
  • equity gap: metropolitan vs regional/rural constraints (less trade capacity)
• Success looks like:
  • better data to inform faster, more cost-effective scoping and resolution
  • reduced trade dependency/time, especially in regional settings
• Pilot concept: test across metro + regional with contractors partnership; focus on scoping to resolve issues timely

Challenge 8: Integrated planning & allocation for Key Worker housing (coordination across government)

• Service model: role-based eligibility; agencies nominate key workers for hard-to-fill vacancies
• Challenge:
  • allocate housing fairly and efficiently across dispersed agencies/workforces and 300+ communities
  • integrate diverse data for:
    • allocation across existing housing vacancies
    • planning for new investment where the housing market can’t meet workforce demand
• Objective for solution:
  • create a matrix combining employment/workforce demographics + property market data
  • apply logic to produce allocation/planning insights with a near real-time view
  • reduce workforce and housing vacancies and unmet demand over time
• Pilot openness: willing to pilot using subsets + subsets of portfolios and locations across NSW, using publicly available and government data (in principle)

Challenge 9: Immersive safety site access & compliance training

• Problem: traditional training may not reflect real-world site conditions or prepare officers adequately.
• Objective: create immersive, scenario-based training that builds:
  • hazard awareness + identification
  • correct assessment and response capabilities
  • confidence for officers/stakeholders in the field
• Desired outputs:
  • clear, safe decision-making tools for site attendees
  • consistent, easy-to-understand training materials with varied delivery options

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Q&A — notable business-operational clarifications

• Multiple grants: Yes, you can apply for multiple; only disqualify if the same project/purpose was already funded by another NSW/state/territory/Australian government program.
• Challenge 3 typology focus: prefer a tool that can test across typologies; also note most portfolio is apartments, but solution should assess best uplift across size.
• Challenge 3 feasibility requirements: must test against Homes NSW design requirements + relevant legislation (e.g., Apartment Design Guide, solar testing, cross-ventilation) and “Good design for social housing”.
• Post-pilot outcome: this is a grant program (not procurement)—Homes NSW could later procure via normal government procurement processes if desired.
• Startups: allowed; selection impacted by financial viability scoring for very new entities.
• Universities: can apply, but must spin out a business for Investment NSW funding agreement.

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Key metrics / KPIs explicitly referenced (by Homes NSW challenges)

• Portfolio size: 126,000 properties (Homes NSW)
• Property mix: ~35,000 managed by community housing providers; >90,000 managed by Homes NSW
• Inspections: ~45,000 properties/year (~1/3 of portfolio)
• Annual maintenance work program scope target: ~4,000–6,000 properties/year
• Reactive maintenance work orders: ~300,000/year
• Total maintenance work orders (incl. program/servicing): ~600,000+ year
• Work orders line items: ~3 to 200 per work order (audits)
• Key worker allocation: housing across 300+ communities (for challenge 8)
• Tenant income reliance statistic: ~93% rely on age/disability/other pension income (challenge 4)

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Concrete actionable recommendations embedded in the webinar

• Read grant guidelines + challenge statements before applying.
• Ensure your pilot plan clearly includes:
  • Access/support needs from Homes NSW (deliverability criterion)
  • Risks and realistic schedule/plan (deliverability criterion)
  • A credible go-to-market/adoption path for scale (commercial viability criterion)
  • Financial viability evidence (especially important for startups)
• Choose one challenge area and frame your solution as:
  • already test-ready (not early R&D)
  • adaptable to NSW social housing constraints (not just private market deployment)

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Presenters / sources (named in subtitles)

• Daniel Van Dijk — Investment New South Wales (host; grants overview & Q&A)
• Alicia (MMC team) — Challenge 1 presenter (introduced via colleague)
• Kevin — Challenge 1 / contributes to Challenge 3 section
• Susanna — Acting Manager, Strategic Planning Team (Pipeline) — Challenge 2
• Maddie (Melanie mentioned in Q&A) — Design Office — Challenge 4
• Rajes Pancholi — Director, Major and Specialized Projects — Challenge 5
• Berna Casey — Maintenance audit team manager — Challenge 6
• Jaden Carling — Director, Maintenance Strategy and Projects — Challenge 7
• Graeme — Strategy Manager (Keyworker housing) — Challenge 8
• Alberto Marino — Director, Standards and Business Services — Challenge 9
• Meline — Facade system Q&A (appears to be the same speaker referenced earlier for Challenge 4 via transcription variation)