Barak Beacon, Port Melbourne

The Barak Beacon development replaces 89 older-style social housing dwellings with 408 modern new homes that will spread across four buildings.  

The new homes will be an integrated mix of social, affordable, private rental and specialist disability accommodation with one-, 2-, and 3-bedroom  options. 

The project will include green open spaces with landscaped gardens and a new civic park, improved pedestrian and cycling facilities and mixed-use indoor spaces including a café, community room and opportunities for social enterprise.

You can view the development plans on Engage Victoria

• Located just 3 km from Melbourne’s city centre in the inner-city suburb of Port Melbourne within the City of Port Phillip, the 21,000 sqm Barak Beacon site has the land capacity to provide more and better homes for more Victorians and is ideally positioned close to public transport, jobs, and services.
• Landscaped open spaces in the central and northern portions of the site, with more than double the number of trees, a children’s play space and community garden.
• The redevelopment will include spaces for a new cafe, social enterprises, a multi-purpose community room and an on-site office for tenancy support.
• All homes will be more comfortable and easier to heat and cool with a 5-star Green Star rating, and 7-star NatHERS average rating.
• New homes at Barak Beacon will include specialist disability accommodation.
• Previous renters will have right of return to the site once the redevelopment is complete, based on their ongoing eligibility and needs.
• The Barak Beacon development will better integrate with the surrounding neighbourhood and provide quality open spaces that residents and the local community can enjoy.
• The Ground Lease Model 2 projects located in South Yarra, Hampton East, Port Melbourne and Prahran will jointly support approximately 7,600 jobs across the Victorian economy. 

The new homes will be bright and modern and have been carefully designed to complement the vibrant Port Melbourne area.

This is a tenure blind development, meaning all social, affordable and private rental homes will be built to the same high standards.

The Port Melbourne community was first consulted on their vision for the future of the Barak Beacon housing site during Stage one engagement, which ran from June and July 2022.

Once a project partner was appointed to deliver the new homes, the community was invited to view and provide feedback on the proposed development plans during Stage 2 consultation between February and March 2024.

Feedback received during this consultation period helped shape the final plans for the site and we would like to thank everyone who took part in this process.

For more information on how we engaged the community or to view the consultation reports for this project, please visit our Engage Victoria webpage for the Port Melbourne redevelopment.

The Ground Lease Model program is an innovative partnerships approach to housing in which Homes Victoria leases the land to not-for-profit project partner, Building Communities.  

Building Communities is responsible for financing, building, operating and maintaining the new homes for the next 40 years. After the 40-year lease term, the land and all assets are returned to Homes Victoria, ensuring there is no sale of public land.

Building Communities refers to the not-for-profit project group that Homes Victoria appointed to deliver new homes at the Barak Beacon housing site under GLM2.

The Building Communities consortium includes Tetris Capital, ICON, Community Housing (Vic) Limited, Women’s Property Initiative Limited and Aboriginal Community Housing (Vic) Limited.

Once the new homes are complete, relocated renters of the former Barak Beacon site will be invited to return to the new homes if they would like to.

The remaining social housing homes will be allocated to people on the Victorian Housing Register and the affordable and market rental homes will be advertised online.