WelcomeMat is Australia’s first bespoke tenant-matching platform for affordable rental housing.
WelcomeMat will help you:

• Get access to the very best affordable housing.
• Search for and find all your options in one place.
• Assess your eligibility quickly.
• Apply online with a time-effective, streamlined process.
• Get email alerts for eligible affordable rental houses when they get listed.

 

Affordable rental housing is for people with incomes that are very low, low or moderate.
The rent for these studios, units and houses will be at least 20% less than market rent.
For example, if the market rent is $500 a week, then the affordable rental amount would be $400 a week. If you are eligible, then this will help reduce your housing stress.

Most affordable rental housing is managed by not-for-profit community housing providers.

Each property has its own eligibility criteria, and the providers assess applications against these criteria.

Income is one of the key eligibility criteria for affordable rental housing. People on very low, low and moderate incomes are eligible to apply for this housing.

Other factors which may also be considered for eligibility include whether:

• you’re a citizen or permanent resident of Australia.
• your household would be able to secure suitable or adequate housing in the private rental market.
• you own any assets (e.g. a property) which could solve your housing need.
• you can show that you’re able to maintain a successful tenancy.

 

Specific criteria may vary between affordable housing providers, depending on the affordable housing programs that they participate in. Criteria may also vary between individual properties.

Affordable housing may include a range of accommodation types and sizes, including single or multi-bedroom units, houses and studio apartments.

What’s considered ‘very low’ to ‘moderate’ income is defined by the relevant housing program (most of which are government sponsored) and take into consideration the number of people in a household, their annual income and applicable government guidelines.

For example, under the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) program, which is one of the various housing programs, the following gross income limits apply to affordable rental properties for 2020-21: $52,324 for the first adult, $55,034 for the first adult-sole parent, plus $20,017 for each additional adult plus $17,357 for each child. Depending on the affordable housing program, income limits may also vary based on location, for example whether the property is in ‘Sydney Metro’ or ‘rest of NSW’.

You can also find out more in our Eligibility Criteria section

For even more information, please visit:

• The Australian Government’s Department of Social Services website
• The NSW Government’s Department of Communities & Justice website

Don’t worry if this is sounding complicated – we’re here to help assess your eligibility for affordable rental housing.

Income is one of the key eligibility criteria for affordable rental housing. People on very low, low and moderate incomes are eligible to apply for this housing. We ask you to enter your household total gross income so that your search results will only include affordable rental properties where you meet the annual income criteria for those properties. Otherwise, you may end up applying for properties that you are not eligible for.

We are happy to accept listings from government entities and not-for-profit organisations that provide or manage affordable rental housing, such as community housing providers. In addition, National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) approved participants and their appointed property managers may also list their properties.

If you are not in any of these categories but have a residential property that you would like to lease out as affordable rental housing (ie. at a discount of at least 20%), the property can still be listed on WelcomeMat if you appoint a community housing provider to manage the property (and list it with us). If you would like to be introduced to a community housing provider(s) for this reason, please email us at enquiries@welcomemat.com.au.

We’re launching first in New South Wales focusing on the Sydney Metro, Central Coast and Hunter regions. We’ll later be expanding to the rest of NSW and will be adding other states and territories in the future. 

You can search the affordable rental property listings that have been listed on our website by Affordable Housing Providers. Since our search functionality asks you to enter your annual gross income, your search results will only include affordable rental properties where you meet the annual income criteria for those properties.

To make an application for an affordable rental property that you are interested in, you will be required to register with WelcomeMat and set up your WelcomeMat profile. If you meet the eligibility criteria (such as income, household composition etc) for the relevant property (as set by the Affordable Housing Provider), you will be able to submit an Expression of Interest application to the Affordable Housing Provider via WelcomeMat.

Our online registration process asks you to submit your name, email address, annual income, preferred areas and certain other details relevant to the Eligibility Criteria for affordable rental housing. We ask for this information so we can match you with properties that you may be eligible for in the areas you are interested in.

During your WelcomeMat registration process you will be required to set up a password to access your profile. If you wish to update your profile you will need to log into your account and submit your updated information.

You can request that we send you email alerts when an affordable rental property is listed on WelcomeMat that matches your WelcomeMat profile. This would be in addition to you being able to do fresh searches on WelcomeMat at any time.

Yes, you can apply for more than one affordable rental property. We encourage you to apply for multiple properties to increase your chances of becoming the successful applicant for an affordable rental property. You can only submit one application per affordable rental property listed on WelcomeMat.

The length of time will depend on the Affordable Housing Provider that has listed the affordable rental property on WelcomeMat. When you log into your WelcomeMat profile you will be able to view the status of your application(s). We anticipate that you will know the outcome of your application within 14 to 30 days.

Yes, you can. However if you wish to make an application for an affordable rental property you are required to register with WelcomeMat and set up your WelcomeMat profile.

We will notify you via your designated email address to let you know if your application has been successful or unsuccessful. You can also find this out when you log into the ‘My Expressions of Interest’ section of your WelcomeMat profile.

You can apply for multiple affordable rental properties so if you are notified that one of your applications has not been successful, it will not affect your other applications. You will also be able to apply for other affordable rental properties listed on WelcomeMat.

The National Affordable Rental Scheme, or NRAS, is a Federal Government affordable housing scheme that commenced in 2008. There are other affordable rental housing schemes including state and territory government schemes. WelcomeMat is not part of NRAS. WelcomeMat does display NRAS listings on WelcomeMat.