Project Details
In late 2021 we were engaged by WINC CoHousing to assist them acquire a site in Daylesford for their aspiring CoHousing community. WINC is a group of 30+ highly motivated ~50-70 year old single women seeking to create a vibrant retirement living community in Daylesford. Their vision is to create a seniors CoHousing community based on collaboration, sustainability, accessibility, and a blend of opportunities for privacy and or social interaction.
The group formed a number of years ago however has faced a number of challenges in acquiring a suitable parcel of land. In July 2022 WINC was featured in an ABC feature “Communal Living is growing in Australia. Residents say it can create community and reduce the cost of living”.
The planned project is a complex one given the cohort of members, the desire to create shared equity ownership pathways for a group of “middle women” who have some savings but low/no borrowing capacity and the intention to build a number of social housing units. Women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing cohort of homeless in Australia and current research estimates that there are over 400,000 women over the age of 45 at risk of homelessness. Creating housing solutions to address this issue was the focus of a 2022 M Pavilion talk “Making Home: Where to next? Alternative Housing Options + Pathways” which WINC participated in.
Our Advisory team is assisting the group to conduct feasibility studies on a number of sites, is providing development management advice on acquisitions, and is helping to structure a capital solution and joint venture to deliver the project post acquisition. Our objective is to create a development solution to enable this project and by doing so create a case study to enable similar communities in other regional areas.
In 2022 WINC successfully acquired a site in Castlemaine and await their town planning permit.