Summary
Housing assistance
is an Australia's welfare
topic
Australian and state and territory governments provide assistance to Australians experiencing difficulty finding or sustaining affordable and appropriate housing. Housing assistance refers to both access to social housing (such as public housing), and targeted financial assistance.
Social housing provides eligible households with rent based on a percentage of a tenant's income (which is usually below market rates). Social housing includes:
- public housing (rental housing managed by all state and territory housing authorities)
- community housing (housing managed by community-based organisations, available to low to moderate income or special needs households)
- state owned and managed Indigenous housing (housing provided and managed by state and territory governments available to households that have at least one member who identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin)
- Indigenous community housing (housing that First Nations communities own and/or manage).
In some states and territories, community housing may include affordable housing.
For more information on affordable housing, see Housing assistance.
Social housing
At June 2025, there were around 452,000 social housing dwellings in Australia, similar to 2024.
In 2025:
- most (324,000) social housing dwellings met the size requirements for the household composition
- there were 60,600 (15%) dwellings that were considered to be underutilised and 21,300 (5.3%) dwellings that were considered to be overcrowded.
For more information on social housing dwellings, see Social housing dwellings and Suitability of dwellings.
Social housing allocations
In 2025, there were around 430,000 households living in social housing, home to around 799,000 occupants.
There has been a decline in the proportion of social housing households in Australia, falling from 4.7% of all households in 2013 to 4.0% in 2025.
In 2024–25:
- 32,400 households were newly allocated social housing (16,000 to public housing, 15,500 to community housing and 890 to state owned and managed Indigenous housing)
- 82% of new social housing allocations were households in greatest need, such as people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
For more information on social housing allocations, see Households and waitlists and Entries, exits and transfers.
Financial assistance
Governments provide financial support to assist people on lower incomes to meet housing costs.
At June 2025, almost 1.4 million income units were receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), an increase from about 1.3 million in June 2024.
In 2024–25, 64,000 households in Australia received Private Rent Assistance and 28,900 households received Home Purchase Assistance.
For more information on people receiving government financial assistance for housing costs, see Financial assistance.
Figure SUMMARY.1: Housing assistance in Australia, by state and territory, 2025
The dashboard shows a summary of housing assistance in Australia and by state and territory. Data presented are available in the chapters of this report and data tables.
The interactive data visualisation displays a summary of key data about housing assistance in Australia at both national and state and territory levels. Data presented are available in the individual sections of this report and in the data download section. There were around 452,000 social housing dwellings in Australia at June 2025. 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.