Housing assistance in Australia

The information presented in this section provides insights into social housing dwelling stock across Australia. This includes 4 main programs: public housing, state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH), community housing and Indigenous community housing. Data in this section are a snapshot on 30 June of the reference year.

Social housing dwellings

At June 2025, (Table DWELLINGS.1):

• 66% or 297,000 dwellings were public housing (PH)
• 26% or 118,000 dwellings were community housing (CH)
• 3.8% or 17,200 dwellings were state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH)
• 4.4% or 19,700 dwellings were Indigenous community housing (ICH).

Changes to social housing dwellings over time

From 2006 to 2025 (Figure DWELLINGS.1; Table DWELLINGS.1):

• The number of public housing dwellings decreased from 341,000 in 2006 to 297,000 in 2025.
• The number of community housing dwellings increased almost four-fold, from 30,100 in 2006 to 118,000 in 2025.
• There was a decrease in the number of Indigenous community housing dwellings from 22,200 in 2006 to 19,700 in 2025. However, the number of Indigenous community housing dwellings increased by 300, from 19,400 in 2024.
• The number of SOMIH dwellings has fluctuated over the period due in part to stock transfers. The number of dwellings in 2025 (17,200) was higher than previous years.

There have been considerable changes to the composition of social housing stock among the 4 programs, see Technical notes for more information. For example, the decline in public housing stock in some jurisdictions (such as in New South Wales) is largely due to transferring the management of social housing from government to community housing providers.

Variation between states and territories

At June 2025, the profile of social housing varied across the states and territories (Figure DWELLINGS.2; Table DWELLINGS.2):

• New South Wales had the highest number of dwellings across all social housing programs.
• For New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory, most dwellings were public housing (59–90%), followed by community housing (10–33%).
• Tasmania had more community housing dwellings (10,400 or 66%) than public housing dwellings (5,100 or 32%).
• Most Northern Territory dwellings were SOMIH (45% or 5,800), followed by public housing (32% or 4,100 dwellings).
• New South Wales (6,600) had the most SOMIH dwellings of any state or territory, followed by the Northern Territory (5,800).
• For Indigenous community housing, New South Wales (6,700) had the largest number of dwellings, followed by Queensland (5,400 dwellings). The Northern Territory had the highest proportion of Indigenous community housing dwellings (16% or 2,000).

Location of dwellings

The location of social housing is an important component of the suitability of a dwelling for an occupant. Some of the factors that influence the suitability of housing location include access to amenities, employment opportunities, health services, and transportation services (AIHW 2024). For further information on the suitability of social housing in terms of location, see the National Social Housing Survey 2025: Needs of tenants – location of their home.

The location of social housing largely reflects the geographic distribution of the population of Australia, with large concentrations of people living in urban centres of both the south-east and east coasts.

At June 2025 (Table DWELLINGS.3):

• Most public and community housing dwellings were in Major cities (76% and 65% of dwellings, respectively).
• For SOMIH, almost a third of dwellings were in Major cities (31%) and over a quarter (28%) were in Very remote areas. Transfers of dwellings from public housing to SOMIH in NSW during 2023–24 (around 1,600 dwellings) and 2024–25 (around 1,100 dwellings) increased the number of SOMIH dwellings in Major cities compared with previous years.
• Most Indigenous community housing dwellings were in Very remote areas (6,800 or 45%).
  
  

Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) refers to the geographical area of sub-state regions in the main structure of the Australia Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). SA4 broadly represents the labour markets or groups of labour markets within each state and territory, with the boundaries reflecting the separation of sub-state regions by different labour markets. For the largest regional cities, including Wollongong and Townsville, SA4s broadly reflects the labour markets of the city. For Outer regional and Remote areas, SA4s broadly reflects the aggregation of smaller and localised labour markets that are geographically, socially, and economically similar (ABS 2021).

Across the states and territories, the number of dwellings managed by the different social housing programs varied by these sub-state regions.

In 2025, the regions with the highest number of social housing dwellings were (Figure DWELLINGS.3; Table DWELLINGS.4):

• Melbourne – Inner (19,600) 
• Sydney – Parramatta (14,000)
• Sydney – Inner South West (13,500)
• Sydney – City and Inner South (13,500)
• Adelaide – North (13,400).

The highest number of public housing and community housing dwellings were in Melbourne – Inner (14,200 and 5,400 respectively). 

The highest number of SOMIH dwellings were in Northern Territory – Outback (5,400).

The Local Government Areas (LGAs) with the highest total number of social housing dwellings were (Table DWELLINGS.6):

• Brisbane (19,500)
• The Australian Capital Territory (12,300)
• Sydney (10,500)
• Canterbury-Bankstown (10,300)
• Blacktown (10,200).

Occupancy

Across Australia, social housing occupancy rates have remained high year to year. At June 2025, 97% of public housing dwellings and 96% of community housing dwellings were occupied. Occupancy rates of Indigenous community housing (92%) and SOMIH (94%) were also high (Table DWELLINGS.7). For all housing programs, occupancy rates were lower in Very remote areas compared with Major cities (Table DWELLINGS.8).

At June 2025 (Table DWELLINGS.7):

• For public housing, the highest occupancy rates were in Queensland (98%) and New South Wales (98%). The lowest occupancy rate was in the Northern Territory (94%).
• The highest occupancy rate for SOMIH was in Tasmania (99%) and the lowest was the Northern Territory (87%).
• For community housing, the highest occupancy rate was in New South Wales (97%) and the lowest was in the Australian Capital Territory (79%).
• For Indigenous community housing, Queensland had the highest rate of occupancy (95%), with the lowest rate in Western Australia (89%).

Tenantable status

The tenantable status of a dwelling relates to whether a dwelling provides a certain level of basic amenity, and that maintenance is completed to the required minimum level (see also NSHS 2025: tenant satisfaction with maintenance services).

At June 2025, almost all public housing dwellings were tenantable (98% or 292,000) – higher than the proportion of SOMIH (96% or 16,500) and community housing dwellings (95% or 112,000) (Table DWELLINGS.9).

Data on tenantable status were not available for Indigenous community housing dwellings.

Dwelling attributes

Dwelling type

Within each social housing program, dwelling types have remained relatively stable over time.

At June 2025, most public housing dwellings were a separate house (36%), flat, unit or apartment (35%) or semi-detached, townhouse, etc. (28%). 

Half of all community housing dwellings were a flat, unit or apartment (53%), followed by a separate house (28%). In comparison, the vast majority of SOMIH dwellings were a separate house (84%), followed by a relatively small proportion of semi-detached, townhouse, etc. (14%). This pattern of SOMIH dwelling types in part reflects the location of dwellings and the target group, with almost three-quarters of SOMIH dwellings located outside of the capital cities (Figure DWELLINGS.4; Table DWELLINGS.10). 

From June 2012 to 2025 (Figure DWELLINGS.4; Table DWELLINGS.10):

• There was a decrease of around 22,200 separate houses in public housing, with decreases across all states and territories except Victoria.
• The number of flat, unit or apartment type dwellings in community housing more than doubled from 25,600 in 2012 to 60,600 in 2025.

Number of bedrooms

At June 2025 (Figure DWELLINGS.4; Table DWELLINGS.11):

• Public housing dwellings were most likely to have 3 bedrooms (35% or 102,000 dwellings), followed by 2-bedroom dwellings (32% or 95,400).
• The majority of SOMIH dwellings were 3-bedroom dwellings (57% or 9,700 dwellings), with very few 1-bedroom dwellings (1.8% or 310).
• Community housing dwellings were most commonly 2-bedroom (37% or 42,300) or 1-bedroom (33% or 37,800) dwellings.

Around half of Indigenous community housing dwellings were 3-bedroom dwellings (48% or 7,300) and a further 24% (or 3,600) were 4-bedroom dwellings. 

Dwellings managed by non-government providers

Community housing and Indigenous community housing dwellings are managed by non-government organisations. As a result, information from some organisations is not available. For more information on data coverage in community housing and Indigenous community housing, see Data quality statements.

At June 2025, there were (Table DWELLINGS.12):

• Around 440 reporting community housing providers across Australia, a decrease of 88 providers from the previous year. While there have been decreases across most states and territories, the decrease of 35 organisations in the Northern Territory, is driven by a change in data supply processes. Note that despite this decrease, it is estimated that all in-scope community housing dwellings are included in the data supply.
• The majority (65% or 290) of community housing providers managed less than 50 dwellings.
• Over 210 Indigenous community housing providers. Close to half (44%) of these providers managed fewer than 20 dwellings (Table DWELLINGS.12).