About Us
Our purpose
The Registrar of Community Housing aims to ensure a well governed, well managed and viable community housing sector that meets the housing needs of tenants and provides assurance for government and investors.
Who we are
The Registrar is an independent statutory officer appointed by the Minister for Housing to carry out the functions established under the National Law for community housing providers.
The Registrar reports to the Minister for Housing who administers the Community Housing Providers (Adoption of National Law) Act 2012 (NSW).
The Registrar is responsible for the implementation of the National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH) in NSW. See NRSCH
The Registrar was also tasked in 2017 by the Minister at that time to establish a local scheme for registration of housing providers in NSW that cannot meet some of the legislated criteria for the national regulatory system. In the first instance (in 2017/18), this relates to the registration of Local Aboriginal Land Councils. See NSW Local Scheme
The Registrar is assisted to carry out these functions by a small staff of financial analysts, analysts and regulatory support officers.
Who are community housing providers?
Community housing providers are non-government organisations which provide housing for people on very low, low and moderate incomes.
The majority of housing offered by community housing providers is long term housing. However, there are many community housing providers supplying specialist housing services such as crisis accommodation or transitional housing where tenants receive housing for a limited period of time while they receive support services designed to assist them to move forward and be able to maintain long term tenancies.
Our authority
The main authority of the NSW Registrar is derived from:
Community Housing Providers (Adoption of National Law) Act 2012 (NSW)
https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2012/
Other instruments of authority include:
Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA)
A joint ministerial agreement, signed by relevant Ministers which commits governments to proceeding with the National Regulatory System for Community Housing and outlines the basis for its establishment and operation.
https://obpr.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/posts/2013/05/Appendix-4_NRS-Inter-Government-Agreement.doc
National Regulatory Code
The code forms the rules governing participation in the National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH)
https://www.nrsch.gov.au/publications-and-resources/national-regulatory-code.html
National Charter
The Charter sets out the overarching vision, objectives, regulatory principles and philosophy of the National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH)
https://www.nrsch.gov.au/publications-and-resources/charter.html
The role of the Registrar in the NRSCH
The Registrar is responsible for the implementation of the National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH) in NSW.
The NRSCH aims to ensure a well governed, well managed and viable community housing sector that meets the housing needs of tenants and provides assurance for government and investors.
The governance arrangements for the NRSCH are shared by the governments of all participating jurisdictions via housing ministers, Registrars and advisory forums. NSW is a participating jurisdiction in the NRSCH.
The key objectives of the NRSCH are to:
- provide a consistent regulatory environment to support the growth and development of the community housing sector
- pave the way for future housing product development
- reduce the regulatory burden on housing providers working across jurisdictions
- provide a level playing field for providers seeking to enter new jurisdictions
How does the Registrar implement the NRSCH?
The National Law for community housing providers establishes a number of functions for the Registrar. These include:
- to maintain the National Register of community housing providers along with Registrars in other participating jurisdictions
- to assess the suitability of entities to be registered as a community housing provider
- to register entities as registered community housing providers and to cancel the registration of registered community housing providers
- to monitor compliance by registered community housing providers with community housing legislation and to exercise enforcement and intervention functions under the legislation
- to investigate complaints about the compliance of registered community housing providers with community housing legislation.