“In the five years from this July, we aim to build 1.2 million [homes]. Our goal is ambitious but achievable, if we all work together and if we all do our bit,” Dr Chalmers said in his budget speech.
“[The] $6.2 billion in new investments mean our $32 billion Home for Australia plan will clear local infrastructure bottlenecks, provide more housing for students, fund more social and affordable housing, and we will also deliver better transport for better access to suburbs, cities and regions.”
In response, Faith Housing Alliance has welcomed the additional funding for housing support and cost of living measures in the budget but highlights “the missed opportunity to go further to meet our national housing emergency with the scale of investment needed to address the chronic underinvestment in social housing”. Read our full statement.
New investment in housing
- $1.9 billion to increase the maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance
- $1.9 billion in concessional loan financing for social and affordable housing
- $1 billion to help the states and territories deliver new housing infrastructure
- $843 million to improve remote housing in the Northern Territory
- $423 million towards the national agreement on social housing and homelessness
- $89 million for construction workforce training
The budget package also includes:
- Increasing the Government’s line of credit to Housing Australia by $3 billion, and Housing Australia’s liability cap by $2.5 billion
- $1 billion under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility towards crisis and transitional housing for women and children experiencing domestic violence, and youth
- Working with the higher education sector to require universities to increase student accommodation
The first $500 million disbursement from the Housing Australia Future Fund will be delivered in 2024-25:
- $200 million in repairs and maintenance in remote Indigenous communities
- A new $100 million grant round to build more crisis and transitional housing for women impacted by domestic violence and for older women at risk of homelessness
- $30 million in support for veterans at risk of or experiencing homelessness
This takes the total investment in the Government’s Homes for Australia Plan to $32 billion.
Commonwealth Rent Assistance
Maximum rates of CRA will increase 10%, anticipated to help nearly 1 million households by receiving an extra $19 per fortnight. Combined with last year’s boost it will give eligible renters as much as $70 each fortnight. This measure will cost $1.9 billion over five years.
Want to dig deeper into the detail?
Below is the full range of housing support measures from the 2024-25 Budget papers:
The Government will provide additional funding to build more homes for Australians sooner, invest in more housing enabling infrastructure, train more construction workers and support social and affordable housing and homelessness services. Funding includes:
- subject to states and territories signing the new National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness:
- $423.1 million over five years from 2024–25 in additional funding to support the provision of social housing and homelessness services by states and territories under a new National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness. The additional funding will increase annual funding under the new agreement to $1.8 billion per year from 2024–25, with over $9.28 billion provided to states and territories over the life of the agreement
- $1.0 billion in 2023–24 for states and territories to support enabling infrastructure for new housing through a new Housing Support Program – Priority Works Stream
- supporting more community housing providers to access finance through the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator by increasing the cap on the Government’s guarantee of Housing Australia’s liabilities by $2.5 billion to $10.0 billion, with an associated increase in the line of credit that supports the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator of $3.0 billion to $4.0 billion
- $88.8 million over three years from 2024–25 to support 20,000 new fee-free training places, including increased access to pre-apprenticeship programs, in courses relevant to the construction sector and delivered through TAFEs and industry registered training organisations
- $19.7 million over six years from 2024–25 to support housing research, fast-track feasibility studies on the release of Commonwealth land to support social and affordable housing and maintain Treasury’s capability to develop, advise on and implement housing policy and programs
- $7.0 million over three years from 2023–24 to provide targeted assistance to residential builders seeking to obtain accreditation under the Work Health and Safety Accreditation Scheme
- $6.2 million over two years from 2024–25 to support building industry peak employer associations to assist residential builders in obtaining accreditation under the Work Health and Safety Accreditation Scheme
- $2.0 million over three years from 2024–25 to build the financial capability of community housing providers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled housing organisations
- $1.8 million over two years from 2024–25 for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to deliver streamlined skills assessments for migrants from comparable countries who wish to work in Australia’s housing construction industry
- support to increase available rental housing by allowing foreign investors to purchase established Build to Rent properties with a lower foreign investment fee, conditional on the property continuing to be operated as a build to rent development.
In addition, the Government will:
- target the $1.0 billion for social housing under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility in the 2023–24 MYEFO towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and youth, including redistributing the mix of concessional loans and grants to increase the proportion of grants to $700.0 million
- provide $1.9 billion in concessional finance to support community housing providers to deliver social and affordable housing under the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord.
The cost of this measure will be partially met from savings identified in the Employment and Workplace Relations Portfolio. The Government has already provided partial funding for this measure.
The Treasury manages Commonwealth payments to the states and territories.
This measure builds on the 2023–24 Budget measures titled National Housing and Homelessness Agreement Transitional Funding and Increasing the Supply of Social and Affordable Housing and Making it Easier to Buy a Home.
Commonwealth Rent Assistance
The Government will provide $1.9 billion over five years from 2023–24 (and $0.5 billion per year ongoing from 2028–29) to increase all Commonwealth Rent Assistance maximum rates by 10 per cent from 20 September 2024 to help address rental affordability challenges for recipients.
This measure builds on the 2023–24 Budget measure titled Increased Support for Commonwealth Rent Assistance Recipients.
