Housing assistance in Australia 2025

This section provides information on the financial assistance related to rental costs and home purchases based on data as at the last Friday in June in the reference year (for CRA) and on 30 June of the reference year (for PRA and HPA). It provides insight into the scale and effectiveness of certain financial assistance programs. It includes financial assistance information on: 

• The Commonwealth Rent Assistance program. 
• The Private Rent Assistance programs.
• The Home Purchase Assistance programs.

Commonwealth Rent Assistance

Data on the number of income units and rental stress levels are reported every quarter in the Commonwealth Rent Assistance in Australia: quarterly data report, including more recent data than the following section. Data by different geography levels is presented below. 

CRA recipients by location

Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) is one of the geographical areas within the main structure of the Australia Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). SA2s are medium sized areas, with populations between 3,000 and 25,000 people, they represent a community that interacts together socially and economically (ABS 2021).

At June 2024, the SA2s of Fairfield in NSW (3,400) and Caboolture-South in Queensland (3,400) had the highest number of income units receiving CRA. 

Statistical Area level 4 (SA4) is the largest sub-state geographical area in the ASGS. SA4s represent labour markets or groups of labour markets within each state and territory. An SA4 generally has a population between 100,000 to 300,000 people in regional areas and 300,000 to 500,000 people in cities.

In 2024 (Table CRA.3): 

• At the SA4 level, Melbourne – Inner (Victoria) had the highest number of income units receiving CRA that included a person aged 24 years and under (4,300). The Gold Coast (Queensland) had the highest number of income units receiving CRA that included a person aged 75 year and over (7,600) and Melbourne – West (Victoria) had the highest number of income units receiving a Disability support pension and CRA (7,700) (Figure FINANCIAL.2).

CRA as a proportion of rent paid

Rental prices and the proportion of rent covered by CRA can differ across states and territories, as well as from region to region. CRA often accounts for less of the proportion of rent in capital cities, as capital cities generally have a higher median fortnightly rent.

In 2024, the median fortnightly rent paid by income units in the capital cities was higher than those in the rest of the state or territory (Table CRA.5). However, the difference in median rent was larger in some states and territories than in others. In New South Wales the median fortnightly rents were around $100 higher in Sydney compared with the rest of the state, and in Western Australia, rents were around $80 higher in Perth compared with the rest of Western Australia. In Tasmania, the median rent in Hobart was almost the same as the rest of Tasmania at around $500. 

There were also differences in the proportion of rent paid for by CRA entitlements between regions. The proportion of rent accounted for by fortnightly CRA entitlements was higher among income units in the rest of the state regions than those in capital cities. In all states and territories, CRA entitlements covered 34–40% of the fortnightly rental costs in the rest of state regions, but around 31–38% for income units in capital cities.

Rental stress and CRA

In Australia, rental affordability is commonly measured by the amount of gross income a household spends on rent. A household is considered in rental stress when more than 30% of gross income is spent on rent. This report focusses on rental stress amongst CRA recipients, defined as a CRA income unit. For more information, see the technical notes.

To provide insight into how much CRA reduced rental stress among income units receiving CRA, the proportion of income spent on rent before receiving (or excluding) CRA is compared with the proportion of income spent after receiving (or including) CRA.

In June 2024, around 538,000 (42%) income units were in rental stress including CRA. Around 398,000 additional income units would have been rental stress if they did not receive CRA (Table CRA.7).

More up to date information on rental stress for CRA income units, including rental stress for special needs groups and primary payment type, are available in the Commonwealth Rent Assistance in Australia: quarterly data report.

Private Rent Assistance

Private rent assistance (PRA) is a form of financial assistance provided by state and territory governments to low-income households experiencing difficulties with securing or maintaining private rental accommodation. PRA is typically provided once, as either a bond loan or a rental grant. However, state and territory governments may offer different types of support that others do not. For example, ongoing rental subsidies are only offered in New South Wales and relocation expenses are only offered in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. For more information, see the Data quality statement for PRA.

In 2023–24, about 60,400 households received PRA, similar to the values reported since 2020–21 but falling from 92,600 in 2019–20 (Figure FINANCIAL.3; Table PRA.1).

Government policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic likely had an impact on PRA. Many jurisdictions introduced initiatives including moratoriums on rental evictions and prevention of rent increases. Pandemic-related assistance may have been provided to households but is out of scope for the PRA collection. 

PRA is demand driven, that is, decreases do not necessarily reflect a lack of household resources or changes to eligibility criteria. The overall rental market may have had an impact on the decline in PRA recipients. For example, reduced vacancy rates may result in reduced movement of tenants, potentially reducing the number of PRA applicants. Further, an increase in the total number of applicants for rental vacancies more broadly may reduce the likelihood of a PRA recipient to secure tenancy. 

Key characteristics of households

Of the 60,400 households receiving PRA, most were aged 25–44 (55%), half had a gross weekly income above the national minimum wage (50%) and 19% were First Nations households (Table PRA.4). 

The main source of income for most (69%) households receiving PRA was from some form of government payment. In particular, the government payments most households were receiving were:

• Jobseeker (17%)
• Other Government pension/allowances (18%) 
• Disability Support Pension (16%)

Over a quarter (29%) of households received their main income sources from an employee income. 

State and territory

Although all states and territories provide bond loans, the other types of PRA provided to households differed with each state and territory. In 2023–24 (Table PRA.2): 

• Queensland provided the greatest number of bond loans (16,300) and households receiving PRA payments overall (21,300).
• South Australia provided the highest number of one-off rental grants (8,900).

New South Wales provided ongoing rental subsidies to around 7,400 households. No other state or territory provided these subsidies. 

Remoteness

In 2023–24, more PRA payments were made to households in Major cities (60%) than in Inner regional (25%) and Outer regional (14%) areas. By contrast, less than 2% of the PRA payments were made to households located in Remote (1.2%) or Very remote (0.5%) areas (Table PRA.3).

Home Purchase Assistance

Home Purchase Assistance (HPA) is a form of financial assistance provided by state and territory governments to eligible households to improve their access or ability to maintain home ownership. HPA can include:

• direct lending
• concessional loans
• mortgage relief
• interest rate assistance
• deposit assistance 
• other assistance grants

The type of home purchase assistance products available to households can differ across the years, and states and territories. Some products were only offered in certain states and territories or were no longer offered to new households. This section presents information on households who received HPA in 2023–24 and households who received HPA in the previous years who were still paying off their HPA-related loan in 2023–24. 

Over 32,000 households in Australia received HPA or were paying off an HPA‑related loan in 2023–24. Over half (57% or 18,000) of these households were in Major cities (HPA.3). The most common form of HPA was direct lending (28,200), which was provided in all the states and territories except Tasmania (Figure FINANCIAL.7; Table HPA.2).

Of the 32,000 households with a HPA related loan, most (88% or 28,200) commenced the loan prior to the start of 2023–24, with only 3,800 households receiving HPA commencing in 2023–24 (Table HPA.2). 

Key characteristics of households

Of the 32,000 households receiving HPA in 2023–24 (Table HPA.4):

• A quarter (25% or 8,000) of households had a main applicant aged 35–44 years and 23% (7,300) were aged 45–54 years. 
• Almost a third (31% or 10,000) of households earned a gross weekly income that was below the 2023 national minimum wage of $882.80 (FWC 2023).

State and territory

In 2023–24, South Australia (18,000 households) and Western Australia (12,300 households) had the highest number of households receiving HPA. Together, the two states contributed 95% of households receiving HPA (Table HPA.1). Direct lending was the main type of HPA provided in these states. About 440 and 2,900 new households received HPA in 2023–24 in Western Australia and South Australia, respectively (Table HPA.2).