Housing assistance in Australia

Most of the data in this section are a snapshot of ongoing households at 30 June of the reference year.

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 2024, among social housing programs (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1; Table HOUSEHOLDS.1):

• 286,000 households (67%) were in public housing.
• 108,000 households (25%) were in community housing.
• 14,800 households (3.5%) were in SOMIH.
• 17,600 households (4.1%) were in Indigenous community housing.

Changes over time

The number of ongoing households in the four 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 2024, the number of public housing households decreased from 331,000 to 286,000. However, this decrease was offset by an increase in the number of community housing households which tripled from 35,000 to 108,000 (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1; Table HOUSEHOLDS.1).

The number of Indigenous community housing households increased from 14,200 in 2009 to 17,600 in 2024. Conversely, 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 14,800 SOMIH households in 2024.

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. See the Technical notes and data quality statements for more information.

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 2024 (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 (33%).
• Households in the Northern Territory were split between SOMIH (42%) and public housing (37%), followed by Indigenous community housing (16%).

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 426,000 in 2024 (Table SOCIAL SHARE.1). Over this same period, the number of total households in Australia also increased, from 8.4 million in 2011 to 10.5 million households in 2024 (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 4.1% in 2024 (Table SOCIAL SHARE.1).

Over the decade to June 2024, the change in the share of social housing households varied between the states and territories (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.2; Table SOCIAL SHARE.1). In 2024, the proportion of social housing households was less than 5% for the four largest states:

• 4.5% in New South Wales (down from 5.0% in 2015)
• 3.0% in Victoria (down from 3.4% in 2015)
• 3.5% in Queensland (down from 3.7% in 2015)
• 3.8% in Western Australia (down from 4.3% in 2015).

The proportion of social housing households was around 6% in South Australia (5.8% down from 6.6% in 2015) and Tasmania (6.2% similar to the 6.3% in 2015), and 6.5% in the Australian Capital Territory (down from 7.4% in 2015).

Due to stock transfers, 2024 data for the Northern Territory are most comparable with 2018. The proportion of social housing households was 14.6% in 2018 and 14.4% in 2024.

Key characteristics of households

Key household characteristics were available for public housing, SOMIH and community housing. In these programs, at June 2024 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.4):

• Over 6 in 10 (63%) were female; 36% were male.
• Two thirds (66% or 269,000 households) of all main tenants were aged 50 years or over. Main tenants aged 75 and over were the largest age group (15% or 60,500 households), followed by main tenants aged 60–64 (11% or 45,900 households). 
• Around 1 in 6 (16% or 66,800) households included a First Nations person.
• Around 2 in 5 (38% or 155,000) included a person with disability.
• Around 60% of public housing (58% or 166,000) and community housing (63% or 67,300) households consisted of a single adult.

Indigenous community housing data were not available.

Length of household tenure

Tenure length presented here relates to the length of ongoing tenancies at June 2024 only, that is, excludes those who left the social housing system. Households may move between dwellings within a program, tenure length relates to the current tenancy and not the total length of a tenure of an individual or household in social housing.

Tenure length is not available for Indigenous community housing.

At June 2024, about 44% of public housing, 37% of SOMIH and 24% of community housing households had been in their current dwelling for more than a decade. In contrast, 4.2% of public housing, 4.4% of SOMIH and 7.7% of community housing households had been in the same tenancy for six months or less (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.3; Table HOUSEHOLDS.6). 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 2024), SOMIH (900 in 2014 to 1,600 in 2024), and community housing (410 in 2014 to 5,000 in 2024).

Age groups

The length of tenure varies by the age of the main tenant. The longer the tenure length, the higher the proportion of main tenants who were aged 65 or older. As expected, of the 20,200 public housing households that had been in the same dwelling for 30 years or more, more than three quarters (77%) were aged over 65 years (Table HOUSEHOLDS.5).

First Nations households

For First Nations households the length of tenure varied depending upon the housing program. Of First Nations households in social housing at June 2024 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.7):

• 19% of those in public housing, 37% of those in SOMIH and 13% of those in community housing had been in the same tenure for more than a decade.
• 29% of public housing, 16% of SOMIH and 36% of community housing households had been in the same tenure for less than two years.

Data for Indigenous community housing were not available.

Waiting lists

At June 2024, the number of households on a social housing waitlist (excluding transfers) were (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.4; Table HOUSEHOLDS.26):

• 169,000 households waiting to be allocated public housing (up from 155,000 at June 2014)
• 15,100 households waiting to be allocated a SOMIH dwelling (up from 8,000 at June 2014).

Of those applicants on a waitlist at June 2024 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.26):

• There were 71,700 greatest need households on the waitlist for public housing (43% of all households on the waitlist); an increase from 43,200 at June 2014 (28% of all households).
• There were around 8,000 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, see the technical notes.

Of the applicants on the waitlist at June 2024 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.27):

• For public housing and SOMIH, the proportion of applicants that were greatest need has been gradually increasing within most states and territories since 2019. 

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