A “new generation”, four-storey boarding house designed address the Illawarra’s low rental vacancy rates by housing almost 50 people has been proposed for Fairy Meadow.
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The boxy 28-room facility at 4 Bourke Street would have three floors of accommodation, according to plans on exhibition with Wollongong City Council.
It would sleep up to 47 lodgers, but according to the developers “rooms will commonly be occupied by single lodgers, giving occupancy of some 30 people”.
The ground floor of the building would contain an office and accommodation for a live-in boarding house manager, as well as seven parking spaces and communal facilities.
It would be rented out “at the lower end of the rental price range” due to the small room size, shared facilities and the limited carparking, and would be aimed at “young home leavers, students, key workers, divorcees and pensioners”.
The plans state the building would have “positive social and economic impacts in providing more affordable and flexible accommodation at a time of severe undersupply in the private rental housing market”. It would also allow residents to maintain social, education and job links, developers said.
The property, which is near the Montague Street industrial area and the rail line, was sold in November 2016 for $1.16 million.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
