Redleaf is the largest housing project Orange has going, and this month it stops being a plan. Landcom, the NSW Government’s land and property developer, and Orange City Council opened a sales office at 3 Redmond Place and will put the first land release to the market at the end of August, after a preview weekend on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August.

What is actually for sale

The site is 24.2 hectares of Council-owned land in a gateway position at the eastern entrance to Orange, which Landcom describes as being unlocked for housing. Masterplanning has identified room for around 300 new homes, a mix of houses, duplexes and townhouses. The first release offers land from 300 to 526 square metres, priced from $235,000.

The project holds a 6 Star Green Star Communities rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, which council says makes it the first 6 Star Green Star community in Orange. On the rating scale the council sets out, 4 stars represents best practice, 5 stars Australian excellence and 6 stars is considered world-leading. It sits alongside Landcom projects including Green Square and Panorama in North Wilton.

The 20 per cent, and what it is not

Both partners state the same headline commitment. Orange Mayor Cr Tony Mileto said the project will cater to various household sizes and incomes, with at least 20 per cent of homes to be set aside as affordable housing for low- to moderate-income workers. Landcom’s project page carries the same figure: at least 20% of homes set aside as affordable housing for low-to-moderate-income households.

The thing worth understanding, before anyone reads that as one in five cheaper blocks, is that affordable housing is a defined product and not a discount for buyers. Landcom’s own guide to it is explicit: it is affordable rental housing, it must be managed by a registered community housing provider and in accordance with the NSW Affordable Housing Ministerial Guidelines, and rents are discounted and calculated depending on the level of income, ranging from very low to moderate, with income limits set by those guidelines. Applicants apply to the community housing provider directly rather than coming off a centralised waitlist. The guide gives the general rule of thumb that housing is affordable if it costs no more than 30 per cent of gross household income.

So the 20 per cent is a rental commitment sitting inside a project whose first act is selling land to private buyers. Those are two different things, and conflating them is the easiest mistake to make reading the announcement.

The two conditions

Here is the part that appears on Landcom’s project page and not in the council’s announcement. Immediately beneath the 20 per cent commitment, Landcom writes: Delivery of Affordable Housing is subject to funding/subsidies and partnership with a Community Housing Provider.

That is not a small footnote, and it is consistent with the fact sheet: if affordable housing must by definition be managed by a registered community housing provider, then without such a partner there is no mechanism to deliver it. As at 18 August 2026 no community housing provider is named on either the council announcement or the Landcom project page, and neither states that funding or subsidies are secured. The council announcement says only that details about affordable rental housing at Redleaf will be shared as the project progresses.

Our reading, offered as opinion and built on the wording above: the sequencing is worth watching rather than worth alarm. Land sales are starting now, and the affordable component depends on arrangements that have not been announced. That is a normal way for these projects to run, and it is also exactly how a headline commitment quietly becomes a smaller number years later. The way to hold it is simple, because both parties have published a figure: around 300 homes, at least 20 per cent. Roughly 60 affordable homes is the number to measure against, and the milestones to watch for are the naming of a community housing provider and confirmation of the funding or subsidies Landcom says the delivery depends on.

One thing we could not settle

The council announcement describes the project as following the completion of the planning phase and approval of the masterplan in April 2026. Landcom’s project page, read the same day, states that the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has approved the planning proposal to rezone the land, and that the masterplan DA is now being assessed by Orange City Council. Those describe two different approvals, a rezoning and a development application, so they are not necessarily in conflict, and the most likely explanation is simply that one page has not been updated. We have not confirmed the current status of the masterplan DA against the council’s own determination records, so we state what each page says and assert nothing beyond it.