Former Simmons Street renters tour redeveloped South Yarra homes

According to a Homes Victoria Instagram post on 21 October, former renters of the old concrete flats at Simmons Street, South Yarra, were taken through the new homes built on the same site after the estate’s redevelopment. The state housing agency framed the walk-through around the possibility of a return, describing the group as potential returning renters rather than confirming any of them had been offered a home.

Homes Victoria’s post did not name the renters, state how many attended the tour, give a completed-home count for the site, or publish a date for when the redevelopment itself finished. Those details do not appear anywhere in the post reviewed for this story.

Why it matters

Homes Victoria described the group as potential returning renters rather than confirming allocations. That leaves open which former Simmons Street households will move back in, and on what terms. The post does not say whether a return is open to all former tenants, a subset, or is subject to an application process.

For builders and contractors working on Victoria’s public housing renewal program, the tour indicates the Simmons Street homes have reached the stage where the agency is showing them to prospective residents. The post gives no handover or completion date. Homes Victoria separately said both buildings at its 104-home Bell-Bardia project reached structural completion on 22 October.

The numbers

No figures in this story can be independently verified. Homes Victoria’s post did not state how many homes now stand on the Simmons Street site, how many former renters were on the tour, or a completion date for the rebuilt estate, so none of those numbers appear here. A search for a separate Homes Victoria media release or a free outlet pickup of the Simmons Street tour did not turn up a corroborating source; the agency’s Instagram post is the only record found.

What’s next

Homes Victoria has not published a timeline, in the material reviewed, for when former Simmons Street renters will learn whether they can return to the redeveloped site. A unit count, an allocation process, or a formal completion date would need to come from a future Homes Victoria release or a corroborating report; none exists yet. Until one does, the agency’s own account of “potential returning renters” is the extent of what can be reported.