The Albanese Labor Government is making the biggest investment in new social and affordable housing in more than a decade.

The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund would deliver funding to build 30,000 affordable homes within its first five years - including:

• 20,000 new social housing homes - 4,000 of which would be allocated to women fleeing domestic violence, and older women at risk of homelessness.
• 10,000 affordable rentals for frontline workers like police, nurses and cleaners who kept us safe during the pandemic.
• $200 million to repair, maintain and improve remote Indigenous housing.
• $100 million for crisis and transitional housing for women and children leaving or experiencing domestic and family violence, and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness; and
• $30 million to build housing and fund specialist services for veterans experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.

The Government will also guarantee in legislation a minimum disbursement of $500 million from the fund from the 2024-25 financial year, with that amount to be indexed from 2029 and can be raised at any time by a legislative instrument. If legislation was passed in June, funds would have commenced accruing and possible disbursements made in the 2023-24 financial year.

The Greens don’t understand that enshrining the Housing Australia Future Fund into legislation is essential in creating an ongoing, secure source of funding for social and affordable homes that can’t be ripped apart by future conservative governments. This is very important. 

Unfortunately, the Greens and the Liberals have shamefully teamed up to block 30,000 desperately needed social and affordable rental homes by blocking Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund in the Senate.

The Albanese Government remains committed to the Housing Australia Future Fund, but this won’t stop our government getting on with the job of making sure more Australians have a safe and affordable place to call home.

On 18 June 2023, the Albanese Government announced a new $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver thousands of new social homes across Australia. This will increase housing supply sooner for Australians on social housing waiting lists, with all funding to be committed by states and territories by 30 June 2025.

In addition to the Social Housing Accelerator, the Albanese Government has delivered on its housing agenda already by:

• Establishing the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee three months early, helping regional Australians purchase a home with as little as a 5% deposit and avoid paying Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance.
• Widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, making up to $575 million available to invest immediately in social and affordable rental homes, with homes already under construction as a result of this funding.
• Working with the states and territories through the National Housing Accord and National Cabinet to support planning and zoning reforms to contribute to our aspiration of building one million new homes over 5 years from 2024, as well as investing $350 million in additional federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable rental homes over five years from 2024 as part of the Accord – matched by the states and territories.
• Establishing the interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council to provide expert advice to Government on housing supply and affordability; and

We are building on this agenda with a number of new measures in the 2023-24 Budget to assist Australians to find a safe, secure and affordable place to call home. In the budget, the Government is:

• Delivering the largest increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years, with a 15 per cent increase in the maximum rates;
• Increasing the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation’s liability cap by $2 billion to provide lower cost and longer-term finance to community housing providers through the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator;
• Providing tax incentives to encourage more build-to-rent developments to boost new supply in the private rental market;
• Providing an additional $67.5 million of funding to the states and territories to help tackle homelessness challenges as part of a one-year extension to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, which provides $1.7 billion a year to the states and territories for housing and homelessness services; and
• Expanding eligibility for the Home Guarantee Scheme, which helps people purchase a home sooner by reducing the deposit they need to save.

The Albanese Government will also deliver in mid-2024 a National Housing and Homelessness Plan to identify the short, medium and long-term steps that can be taken to address housing issues in Australia, and will establish Help to Buy, a new program to make it easier and cheaper for Australians to buy a home.