Increasing housing supply

Setting national housing targets

All levels of government need to work with market participants to increase quality, affordable housing.

This means working with investors and the development, building and construction sector.

The National Housing Accord brings these parties together.

The accord sets aspirational targets:

• To deliver 1.2 million new, well-located homes over 5 years from mid-2024.
• Combined commitments from the Australian Government and the states and territories to deliver up to 20,000 affordable homes.

Incentivising the states and territories

The Australian Government’s $3 billion New Homes Bonus incentivises the states and territories to:

• aim beyond their share of the National Housing Accord target
• undertake necessary reforms to increase housing supply and affordability.

Building enabling infrastructure

The $1.5 billion Housing Support Program is funding state, territory and local governments to:

• connect essential services
• provide amenities to support new housing development
• build planning capability
• build more social housing.

Improving planning and zoning

The National Planning Reform Blueprint is an agreed set of measures to improve housing supply and affordability. They include:

• updating state, regional, and local strategic plans to reflect housing supply targets
• promoting medium and high-density housing close to public transport, amenities and employment
• streamlining approval pathways.

Accelerating uptake of modern housing construction methods

The Australian Government is investing $54 million to develop a voluntary national certification scheme for prefabricated and modular housing manufacturers.

It will support states and territory governments to scale up existing programs that use these modern housing construction methods.

The Government also committed $120 million from the National Productivity Fund to incentivise state and territory governments to ensure modern housing construction methods are regulated consistently with conventional construction.

These initiatives will help more homes to be built faster.

Encouraging older Australians to downsize

The Downsizer superannuation contribution rules allow people aged 55 and older to make an after-tax superannuation contribution from the proceeds of selling their home.

This reduces barriers for downsizing and makes more homes available for young families.

Age Pensioners who sell their family home will benefit from an increase of the asset test exemption period to 24 months.

More university accommodation

The Australian Government has set a caveat for universities wanting to increase their intake of international students:

• to deliver more accommodation for students
• to reduce pressure on the private rental market.

Universities wanting to increase international enrolments must build new student accommodation.

Any new accommodation is available to both local and international students.

Training more construction workers to build homes

The Australian Government is growing the number of future construction workers by increasing the number of fee-free TAFE and pre-apprenticeship places.

Prioritising skills assessments for migrants in the construction industry

The Australian Government is streamlining skills assessments for migrants from comparable countries to work in Australia’s housing construction industry.

Establishing the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council

The independent National Housing Supply and Affordability Council advises on matters affecting Australia’s housing supply and affordability.

The council's members come from government, industry, the community sector and academia.