Suburb 4 Sale (2006)

What happens when houses in a socially disadvantaged public housing estate go under the hammer? On the very edge of southwest Sydney, where suburban sprawl meets bushland, a number of unusual auctions have begun. The NSW Department of Housing is selling off houses it can no longer afford to maintain, and making plans to bulldoze others, in an effort to revamp the suburb of Airds. Suburb 4 Sale is a one-hour observational documentary filmed over 2 years with three families as they buy into, or try to opt out of, a public housing estate. The film is an intimate, dramatic portrayal of their ups and downs, their joys and disappointments. This is real life drama during a period of broad social and economic change. Just over two years ago Daniel and Kim Torr blew their budget by $30,000 to buy one of the former Department of Housing homes in Airds at auction. We follow them through the auction process, and the trials and tribulations of turning the rundown abandoned public housing property into a home for themselves and their four young boys. The Torrs' dreams aren't extravagant but the ones they have are shattered when the market nose-dives and Daniel loses his dream job. Airds may be an opportunity for new buyers but there are plenty of people who don't want to live there. Tracey Brotherstone is a public housing tenant who is desperate to get out. She lives with her 6 year old daughter and her partner Lyn in a town house with an oven that doesn't work, a mouse plague, holes in the walls, chipping, mouldy tiles in the bathroom, and a dodgy extractor fan in the kitchen. Tracey hopes the Government's grand vision to redevelop Airds - the Masterplan - will be her ticket out of Airds. Several houses are earmarked for demolition and the tenants have been promised new homes in other areas. As time goes on the Masterplan doesn't provide Tracey with an escape route. In fact things get much worse for her living in Airds when Lyn gets bashed at the local pub. Sandy May is a single mum with three young children, who ended up in Airds as a public housing tenant, as a result of domestic violence. After three years she's now keen to move on, find private housing and give her children a better chance in life. Sandy's lucky break comes when her mother offers to mortgage her own home to buy a house in a private suburb for her to live in. But when Sandy's past, in the form of her on-again, off-again boyfriend comes back on the scene, it's clear the new house won't solve all her problems. Robyn Harrison is the likeable real estate agent who sells the Department of Housing homes they can no longer afford to maintain in Airds. Robyn has an unshakeable belief that privatising houses in Airds - and thereby changing the social mix of the suburb - will bring much needed social reform to the estate. But when the market nose-dives her job gets much harder. Whilst the backdrop to Suburb 4 Sale film is a public housing estate in Sydney, it documents a much bigger, universal story that many of us can relate to in finding and establishing a home - the impact that broad social forces can have on our personal dreams and aspirations.