Adelaide City Council’s plan to ease housing crisis with under-utilised CBD and North Adelaide shop buildings

The Adelaide City Council has set an ambitious target of converting 50 spaces above CBD shops into residential rentals, in a bid to ease the housing crisis.

Mr Assad-Salha and his wife Lynnette support the council’s building reuse initiative, having converted the heritage-listed Q Theatre into a home 20 years ago. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Adelaide City Council has set an ambitious target to deliver 50 new homes annually, by targeting property owners to convert spaces above CBD shops into rentals or permanent homes.

The Adaptive Reuse City Housing Initiative aims to ease the housing crisis while also transforming vacant spaces into profitable assets and giving new life to historic buildings.

A citywide audit identified 148 buildings to date as potential adaptive reuse properties, with financial incentives of up to $50,000 to help property owners with conversion costs.

Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the council planned to grow its population from 26,000 to 50,000 by 2036, which required a “significant increase in housing supply”.

“In addition to the various market responses to supply, adaptive reuse has been recognised as an additional pathway to create housing outcomes and can have the added advantage of being quicker than new builds in a number of instances,” she said.

“In our current housing crisis, even small numbers are important in addressing the housing supply challenge.

“As I have said many times over the past 12 months, if we can put a man on the moon we can put a family above a shop.”

The council will use a $500,000 state government grant over two years as financial incentives for property owners to convert their buildings to help it reach its target.

The bluestone building on Halixfax St closed in 1994 and was lovingly restored by the Assad-Salha family into two upstairs residences and a commercial business downstairs. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Artist Neville Assad-Salha is a supporter of converting old city buildings into housing, having done it himself 20 years ago with the heritage-listed Q Theatre.

The bluestone building on Halixfax St closed in 1994 and was lovingly restored by the Assad-Salha family into two upstairs residences and a commercial business downstairs.

“It’s wonderful to hear, we’ve done it and it’s absolutely magic,” Mr Assad-Salha said.

“We don’t have a massive space upstairs but you don’t need a massive space.”

The Q Theatre was originally built as the Sunday school of Stow Memorial Church in 1878.

“Rather than knocking these places down, they should be restored,” Mr Assad-Salha said.

“It’s easy to put up a high-rise but you’ve lost that impulse of our forbearers.

“Who builds out of stone these days? No one does.”

Mr Assad-Salha and his wife Lynnette use the commercial area – The Q on Hallett – as a bar, music and gallery space, with the Just Jugs exhibition opening on Saturday August 3 as part of the South Australian Living Artist Festival. 

Housing and Urban Development Minister Nick Champion said he was supportive of the adaptive reuse of shops as they provided a “point of difference in the market”.

“Converting vacant space above shops into possible housing is a genuine option that will appeal to many people wanting a cosmopolitan and vibrant lifestyle,” Mr Champion said.

“We will continue to look at removing the regulatory barriers to enable investors and developers to look at adaptive reuse as a realistic option, if it’s economically viable.”

He had made comments earlier this week at a CEDA State of the State luncheon that adaptive reuse of “office buildings” … “doesn’t work” due to “huge costs involved”.

The council will on Monday launch a dedicated homepage for the housing initiative, which targets buildings up to four storeys in the CBD and North Adelaide.

The website will include practical advice and incentive scheme details, which includes up to $10,000 for feasibility assessment, advice and documentation costs.

Property owners can also apply for up to $25,000 in construction costs to deliver projects of one to three dwellings, or up to $50,000 for four or more homes.

The council has also extended their existing incentive schemes for sustainability, heritage and noise management to provide a range of funding streams for adaptive reuse projects.

Dr Lomax-Smith said the council was continuing to review regulations and potential barriers to residential adaptive reuse.