Australia needs 510,000 social homes by 2050 as waitlists surge to 190,000, report reveals
A shocking new report has exposed a sad new waitlist for public housing as it’s projected 190,000 will be left in limbo.   


News.com.au
September 25, 2026

Waitlists for social housing have grown since 2018.   

Community housing advocates are crying out for the support they need to improve the lives of vulnerable Australians.

An average of only 3,000 social and affordable homes are built each year in Australia and waitlists have soared to 190,000 households, up 70 per cent since 2018 for just those most in need.

New economic modelling commissioned by peak body, Australian Community Housing reveals that Australia needs 510,000 additional social and affordable homes by 2050, equivalent to 23,000 a year.

MORE: Union demands fivefold increase in public housing

Australian Community Housing released new economic modelling on Friday revealing Australia needs 510,000 new social and affordable homes by 2050.
It takes three to five years from securing funding to finishing new homes and ACH chief executive officer Mark Degotardi said inconsistent funding can exaggerate this lag in delivery.

“A gap in funding decisions becomes a gap in homes for people who need them,” Mr Degotardi said.

“If we want homes being built in 2030 and beyond, the next round of investment has to be decided now.

“A social or affordable home does more than provide the secure shelter people urgently need, it gives people the stability to put down roots, keep children at the same school, stay close to work and family, and make plans for the future,” he said.

The ACH figures were submitted to the Senate Inquiry into Social Housing and released on Friday.


MORE: New bill cracks down on ‘affordable’ housing loophole

The Grattan Institute is an independent think tank at The University of Melbourne.

Labor has promised to build 55,000 new social and affordable houses by 2029 and rolled out the recent tax reforms, in part, to lower demand on government housing by boosting supply.

Matthew Bowes is a senior associate for independent think-tank, the Grattan Institute and said the new tax settings won’t move the needle for lowering housing demand.

“These tax setting changes have relatively little impact in our analysis of housing supply,” Mr Bowes said.

“But it will do some good in equalising the housing market between investors and homeowners.

“I think the main challenge Australia faces in terms of housing supply is the barriers we’ve put in place at state and local level particularly around where new housing can be built.

“If we can improve housing supply, then that will lower demand for social and affordable housing,” he said.



Six per cent of Australian homes were social and affordable housing in 1990. It’s now 4.1 per cent and projected to fall to 3.5 per cent by 2050.:

Building 23,000 new homes a year would return the country to 1990s levels when six per cent of Australia’s housing stock was social and affordable. The current proportion is 4.1 per cent.

ACH considers the latest targets “the most significant Commonwealth investment in decades” but Mr Degotardi said the government needs to urgently do more to keep up with demand.

“Certainly, Australian Community Housing agrees that market levers like negative gearing have never worked to deliver investment in social and affordable housing,” Mr Degotardi said.

“There continues to be an urgent need for permanent national funding for social and affordable housing where rents are tied to incomes, and not market forces – i.e. in Australia, largely through community or public housing.

“The Housing Australia Future Fund (to build 30,000 homes by 2029) has created a national platform for social and affordable housing.

“The next step is to turn that platform into a permanent pipeline that continues beyond 2029,” he said.

Labor expects a surge in completions of social and affordable homes. 

MORE: Unfinished Aus homes will be left abandoned

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare started counting the raw number of social housing dwellings across the country in 2018.

This is what happens when governments spent decades selling off as much public housing as they could and relying on the private sector to take care of the many people who can't/don't want to buy and need to rent.

And, it worked reasonably well until about 20 years ago when greedy people (governments included but they're probably more stupid than greedy) decided to turn housing into a game of Monopoly and house prices and rents skyrocketed and as a result many people now can't afford private rents so they have no choice but to apply for public housing (while they 'couch surf' or live in their cars or on the street).

The fact that governments didn't see this coming (or, more likely they did but didn't care because they don't usually "think" any further ahead than the next election) shows just how incompetent they really are.

And again - disgraceful stuff.

Privatisation has always been the wrong move... raises costs and fails to provide the goods - creates inflation and social and economic divides.

Now with the flood immigration policy, there is no real hope for anyone outside the privileged envelope created by false economic thoughts like sustaining and literally paying for investment for profit.... surely a stupid idea if ever there was one, and destined to raise costs indefinitely.....

Everything fine in Aus-Tray-lia ... Ten to a room in Aus-Tray-lia...

Line them up and issue tents and allocate spots under the bridges..... now we will see the annual migrations between areas that have been cold for Winter and the Warmer Climes of the Coast - and the crime rates in inland towns will rise again, along with the escalating New Underworld along the coastal rim..

Told yez years ago that a criminal underworld would be one of the results of melon-less governments.... Les Gouvernements Sans Melons  (GSM colloquially Gi'sum'me) ... now in many ways the fruit bats are coming home to roost... the wild geese are settling on final approach for touchdown on your tin roofs....

.. criminal underworld.... massive and growing divisions .... weak governments leading to calls for strong government.... the danger of an extreme government of left or right with the thickness of a cigarette paper between the two... impending civil war..... government after government stoking the fires of the people's discontent... terrorism in the streets ..... the predictions are dire....