Albanese government misses every target of National Housing Accord, falling more than 55,000 homes short in first year

Sky News AU

14 hours ago

The Albanese government has failed to meet a single target in the first year of its flagship National Housing Accord, falling more than 55,000 homes short of its annual goal.
New figures from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) reveal the worsening housing crisis amid construction delays and exacerbated supply issues due to immigration.
The housing policy, which began in July 2024, aimed to deliver 1.2 million new homes by 2029— or 20,000 homes per month—to improve housing availability and affordability.
Analysis by the IPA found that just 185,000 homes have been completed since the accord began, leaving the government over 55,000 dwellings behind schedule.
The government's target included 55,000 social and affordable homes, of which just 2,600 were completed in 2024.
'The federal government's National Housing Accord is one year old and already tens of thousands of homes behind target,' Director of Research at the IPA Morgan Begg said.
'In its first year of operation, the National Housing Accord as failed to hit a single target.
'At the same time the federal government is bringing in 1.3 million new migrants over three years, Australia is being set up for a disaster.'
The latest forecast from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council projected the government will fall 250,000 homes short of its target by 2029.
Meanwhile, bureaucratic red tape has strangled the number of new homes being built as the time taken to build a new dwelling continues to grow.
According to findings based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, it takes 50 per cent longer to build a house in 2025 compared to a decade ago.
'There is unprecedented demand for new homes. Yet it is taking far longer to build them, and it costs significantly more to do so,' Mr Begg said.
The IPA also pointed to the contradiction between falling construction rates and rising net migration, with about 1 million migrants set to come in by 2029.
The federal budget papers have forecast net overseas migration of 260,000 in 2025-26 and then 225,000 in the subsequent three years.
'There is no plan on how to house new arrivals … This is a manufactured housing disaster,' Mr Begg said.
The damning findings follow similar warnings from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC).
In its State of the Housing System 2025 report, the council projected that only 938,000 homes would be built by June 2029—over 250,000 homes short of the federal target.
It noted that no state or territory was on track to meet its share of the target, based on population.
ABS figures show just 177,000 dwellings were completed in 2024—well below the estimated underlying demand of 223,000.
The Albanese government increased total housing commitments to $33 billion in the 2025 federal budget, including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has defended her approach, arguing 'it takes time to turn the tide on a housing crisis a generation in the making'.
The Property Council of Australia (PCA) has since called on governments to redouble efforts to boost housing supply productivity.
'We're projected to be 262,000 homes behind the 2029 target but imagine the gap without these reforms,' PCA Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said in a statement.
'We … desperately need to address falls in productivity that mean we're building fewer than half as many homes per hours worked today than in the mid-1990s.
'We need to move from 170,000 homes a year into the high 200,000s to meet the Accord's target.
'That requires bold leadership to dissolve assessment and approval gridlock in key corridors.'