Housing assistance in Australia

Data in this section are a snapshot at 30 June of the reference year, unless otherwise stated.

Households

Information on the characteristics of households (such as sex, income status and disability status) provides an insight into the demographic profile of social housing households.

At June 2025, among social housing programs (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1; Table HOUSEHOLDS.1):

• 285,000 households (66%) were in public housing.
• 110,000 households (26%) were in community housing.
• 16,000 households (3.7%) were in SOMIH.
• 17,900 households (4.2%) were in Indigenous community housing.

Changes over time

The number of ongoing households in the 4 main social housing programs has fluctuated in recent years reflecting dwelling changes within each program (see Social Housing Dwellings section). Changes to the number of households in public housing and community housing programs account for the largest changes across time.

From 2008 to 2025, the number of public housing households decreased from 331,000 to 285,000. However, this decrease was offset by an increase in the number of community housing households which tripled from 35,000 to 110,000 (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1; Table HOUSEHOLDS.1).

The number of Indigenous community housing households increased from 14,200 in 2009 to 17,900 in 2025. The number of SOMIH households has fluctuated over time, decreasing from 12,400 in 2008 to 9,600 households in 2017. In 2018, the inclusion of SOMIH household data for the Northern Territory for the first time contributed to an increase in reported SOMIH households to 13,800. There were around 16,100 SOMIH households in 2025.

The change in the proportion of households in each of the social housing programs varied across states and territories (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1). Due to changes in systems and processes and stock movements between programs, data for individual states and territories and patterns of social housing may not be comparable across years. 

For more information on changes over time to public housing programs, see Technical notes and Data quality statements.

State and territory

States and territories employ different models of social housing. The number of households reflects the number of social housing dwelling types available to providers for allocation. 

Of the social housing households at June 2025 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.1):

• Public housing households made up the majority in most states and territories, followed by community housing. 
• In Tasmania, most social housing households were in community housing (66%), followed by public housing (32%).
• Households in the Northern Territory were mostly SOMIH (43%) and public housing (33%), followed by Indigenous community housing (17%).

Supply of social housing

The following compares the total number of households in social housing to the total number of households in Australia using:

• the number of social housing households (public housing, SOMIH, community housing and Indigenous community housing)
• the total number of households in Australia sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics household projections series (ABS 2010; ABS 2015; ABS 2019, ABS 2024).

The number of social housing households increased from 404,000 in 2011 to 430,000 in 2025 (Table SOCIAL SHARE.1). Over this same period, the number of total households in Australia also increased, from 8.4 million in 2011 to 10.6 million households in 2025 (ABS 2015; ABS 2019, ABS 2024).

The amount of social housing households as a proportion of Australian households has seen a steady decline, from 4.8% in 2011 to 4.0% in 2025 (Table SOCIAL SHARE.1).

Over the decade to June 2025, the change in the share of social housing households varied between the states and territories (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.2; Table SOCIAL SHARE.1). In 2025, the proportion of social housing households was less than 5% for the 4 largest states:

• 4.5% in New South Wales (down from 4.9% in 2016)
• 3.0% in Victoria (down from 3.3% in 2016)
• 3.5% in Queensland (down from 3.7% in 2016)
• 3.8% in Western Australia (down from 4.4% in 2016).

The proportion of social housing households was around 6% in:

• South Australia (5.7% down from 6.5% in 2016)
• Tasmania (6.2% up from 6.0% in 2016)
• The Australian Capital Territory (6.2% down from 7.1% in 2016).

Due to stock transfers in 2017, 2025 data for the Northern Territory are most comparable with 2018. The proportion of social housing households was 14.6% in 2018 and 13.9% in 2025.

Key characteristics of households

Key household characteristics were available for public housing, SOMIH and community housing. In these programs, at June 2025 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.4):

• The majority (57%) were female; 43% were male. This was consistent across public housing and SOMIH but in community housing there were more male (61%) main tenants than females (37%).
• Two thirds (66% or 273,000 households) of all main tenants were aged 50 years or over. Main tenants aged 75 and over comprised 15% or 62,400 households, with main tenants aged 60–64 comprising 11% or 46,400 households. The age structure of the main tenant varied across the different housing programs, with more younger main tenants in SOMIH than other programs.
• Around 1 in 6 (17% or 69,300) households included a First Nations person, ranging from 11% in community housing and 14% in public housing to 99% in SOMIH.
• Around 2 in 5 (39% or 160,000) included a person with disability.
• Around 6 in 10 public housing (58% or 167,000) and community housing (63% or 69,700) households consisted of a single adult. Around 4 in 10 SOMIH households were group and mixed composition.

Data about key household demographic characteristics were not available for Indigenous community housing.

Length of household tenancy

Tenancy length presented here relates to the length of ongoing tenancies at June 2025 only; that is, it excludes those who left the social housing system. Households may move between dwellings within a program. Tenancy length relates to the current tenancy and not the total tenure length of an individual or household in social housing.

Tenancy length is not available for Indigenous community housing.

At June 2025, about 44% of public housing, 37% of SOMIH and 25% of community housing households had been in their current dwelling for more than a decade. In contrast, 4.2% of public housing, 4.5% of SOMIH and 7.1% of community housing households had been in the same tenancy for 6 months or less (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.3; Table HOUSEHOLDS.5). Tenancy length is affected by the number of available dwellings; a yearly increase in community housing dwellings will also increase the number of households with tenancy length under a year.

The number of households with a tenancy length of 20 years or more has increased over time for public housing (37,400 in 2011 to 59,800 in 2025), SOMIH (900 in 2014 to 1,800 in 2025), and community housing (410 in 2014 to 5,300 in 2025). 

First Nations households

For First Nations households, tenancy length varied depending upon the housing program. Of First Nations households in social housing at June 2025 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.6):

• 20% of those in public housing, 36% of those in SOMIH and 14% of those in community housing had been in the same tenancy for more than a decade.
• 28% of public housing, 17% of SOMIH and 35% of community housing households had been in the same tenancy for less than two years.

Data for Indigenous community housing were not available.

Waitlists

A household may be on waitlists for more than one housing program. States and territories have a consolidated waitlist of households who are eligible for, but not yet allocated, social housing.

At June 2025, there were 206,000 households nationwide on the consolidated social housing waitlist, up from 183,000 at June 2024. Consolidated waitlist data for years prior to 2024 are unavailable, however, information about public housing and SOMIH waitlists are available from 2014.

At June 2025, the number of households on the public housing and SOMIH waitlists (excluding transfers) were (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.4; Table HOUSEHOLDS.27):

• 190,000 households waiting to be allocated public housing (up from 155,000 at June 2014)
• 17,500 households waiting to be allocated a SOMIH dwelling (up from 8,000 at June 2014).

Of those applicants on a waitlist at June 2025 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.27):

• There were 77,400 greatest need households on the waitlist for public housing (41% of all households on the waitlist), an increase from 43,200 at June 2014 (28% of all households).
• There were around 9,200 greatest need households waiting for SOMIH dwellings (53% of all households), up from 3,800 at June 2014 (48% of all households).

Waitlist data for both community housing and Indigenous community housing were unavailable.

State and territory

The notable differences in the proportion of new greatest need households on the waitlists among states and territories is a result of the varying criteria for priority needs across jurisdictions. For more information on variations in greatest need reporting, see Technical notes. 

Of the applicants on the waitlist at June 2025, the proportion of applicants that were greatest need has been gradually increasing within most states and territories since 2019 for both public housing and SOMIH (Table HOUSEHOLDS.28).

For SOMIH, greatest need information was not available in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.