The Australian Community Land Trust Manual

A community land trust (CLT) is an organisation that provides ongoing affordable housing and other community benefits, usually set up as a private non-profit community organisation. That definition places CLTs in the broader family of community housing providers. What makes them unique is their focus on community involvement in or ownership of the organisation, and their focus on balancing the rights of the household with the rights of the broader community or society. This is often referred to as unpacking the bundle of rights that are tied up in housing tenure; in doing so, CLTs aim to ensure that neither the household nor wider society benefits at the expense of the other. CLTs provide a range of affordable housing that includes resale-restricted home ownership, rental housing and housing cooperatives, as well as other commercial and/or community spaces. This Manual represents Phase 1 of a broader project to develop comprehensive tools for prospective CLTs. Phase 2 will focus on detailed case studies and financial instruments, and will create material to be incorporated into later editions of the Manual. The aim of this Manual is to provide the emerging community land trust (CLT) sector in Australia with useable resources to address the operational, legal and financial issues and decisions facing potential CLTs in Australia. It is intended that the Manual will continue to evolve as new information, knowledge and issues come to light. The Manual has aimed to be risk-averse while comprehensive in its coverage and address issues for all Australian jurisdictions.