Households and waiting lists

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

Key findings

  • The number of households in the four main social housing programs increased from 379,000 in 2008, to 423,000 in 2023.
  • The overall growth of social housing households has not kept up with the overall growth in the number of households in Australia.
  • The majority of households in social housing have been in their tenancies for less than 10 years.
  • The proportion of greatest need households on public housing and SOMIH waiting lists has been increasing since 2014.

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.

Household definitions

For the purposes of this analysis, a household is either an individual or a group of 2 or more related or unrelated people residing in the same dwelling. Information is presented about ongoing households, that is, those with a tenancy on 30 June in the reference year. Complete data were not available for all programs in some states and territories.

Household composition describes the group of people living in household in a dwelling and is based on couple and parent–child relationships. A single-family household contains a main tenant only, or a main tenant residing with a partner and/or the main tenant’s children. Group households consist of 2 or more tenants aged 16 or over who are not in a couple or parent–child relationship. Mixed households are households not described by the other two types – for example, multiple single-family households.

The number of households in the four main social housing programs increased from 379,000 in 2008, to 423,000 in 2023.

At June 2023, among social housing programs (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1; Table HOUSEHOLDS.1):

  • 286,000 households (68%) were in public housing.
  • 105,000 households (25%) were in community housing.
  • 13,100 households (3.1%) were in SOMIH.
  • 18,500 households (4.4%) were in Indigenous community housing.

Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1: Households by social housing program, at June 2005 to 2023

Number of households, by social housing program, at June 2005 to June 2023. This vertical stacked bar graph shows the highest proportion of households living in public housing from 2005 (89%) to 2023 (68%). Community housing had the second highest proportion of households at 25% in 2023; increasing from 7.5% in 2005. In contrast, SOMIH (3.1%) and Indigenous community housing (4.4%) had the lowest proportion of households, with both proportions remaining mostly unchanged from 2005 and 2009, respectively.

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 2023, 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 105,000 (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.1; Table HOUSEHOLDS.1).

The number of Indigenous community housing households increased from 14,200 in 2009 to 18,500 in 2023. Conversely, the number of SOMIH households has fluctuated over time, decreasing from 12,400 in 2008 to 9,600 households in 2017. SOMIH household data for the Northern Territory were reported for the first time in 2018 and in turn, the number of SOMIH households increased to 13,800and has remained steady since, with around 13,100 SOMIH households reported in 2023.

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

Each state and territory employs a variety of different models of social housing provision, and the number of households largely reflects the number of social housing dwelling types available to providers for allocation.

Of the social housing households at June 2023 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.1):

  • Public housing households made up the majority of social housing in most states and territories, followed by community housing.
  • In Tasmania, social housing households were predominantly community housing (65%), followed by public housing (34%).
  • Households in the Northern Territory were roughly evenly split between SOMIH (41%) and public housing (39%), followed by Indigenous community housing (16%).

Supply of social housing

The overall growth of social housing households has not kept up with the overall growth in the number of households in Australia.

The following analysis 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).

In the years from 2011 to 2023, the number of social housing households increased from 404,000 in 2011 to 423,000 in 2023 (Table SOCIAL SHARE.1). Over this same period, the number of total households in Australia also increased from 8.4 million in 2011 to 10.3 million households in 2023 (ABS 2015; ABS 2019).

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 2023 (Table SOCIAL SHARE.1).

From June 2014 to June 2023, the share of social housing households varied between states and territories (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.2; Table SOCIAL SHARE.1).

In 2023, the proportion of social housing households was less than 5% for the four largest states:

  • 4.6% in New South Wales (down from 5.0% in 2014)
  • 2.8% in Victoria (down from 3.5% in 2014)
  • 3.6% in Queensland (down from 3.8% in 2014)
  • 4.1% in Western Australia (down from 4.4% in 2014).

The proportion of social housing households was around 6% in South Australia (6.0%), and 6.5% in the Australian Capital Territory, although these were lower than the 2014 proportions for these jurisdictions (6.7% and 7.6% respectively).

Due to stock transfers, data for the Northern Territory are best comparable with 2018. The proportion of social housing households was 14.6% in 2018 and 14.4% in 2023.

Figure HOUSEHOLDS.2: Social housing households as a proportion of all Australian households, by states and territories, at June 2008 to 2023

The map shows the social housing households as a proportion of total households from June 2008 to 2023 in each state and territory. 

Key characteristics of households

Two thirds of all main tenants were aged 50 years or over.

Key household characteristics were available for public housing, SOMIH and community housing. In these programs, at June 2023 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.4):

  • The vast majority of ongoing public housing (96%), SOMIH (98%), and community housing households (91%) were low-income households.
  • Over 6 in 10 (62%) were female; 36% were male.
  • Two thirds (66% or 266,000 households) of all main tenants were aged 50 years or over. Main tenants aged 75 and over were the largest age group (15% or 59,200 households), followed by main tenants aged 60–64 (11% or 45,400 households).
  • Around 1 in 6 (16% or 64,400) households included an Indigenous Australian.
  • More than one third (37% or 148,000) included a person with a disability.
  • Around 60% of public housing (58% or 165,600) and community housing (61% or 64,400) households consisted of a single adult.

Note: Indigenous community housing data were not available

Length of household tenure

The majority of households in social housing have been in their tenancies for less than 10 years.

Tenure length presented here relates to the length of ongoing tenancies only, that is, excludes those who left the social housing system. Tenure length is not available for Indigenous community housing.

At June 2023, about 44% of public housing, 36% of SOMIH and 23% of community housing households had been in their current dwelling for more than a decade. Note: households may move between dwellings within a program, tenure length relates to the current tenancy, not the total length of a tenure of a household in a housing program. In contrast, 4.2% of public housing households, 4.2% of SOMIH and 7.9% of community housing households had been in the same tenure for six months or less (Figure HOUSEHOLDS.3; Table HOUSEHOLDS.6).

The tenancy length profile differs between the social housing programs. At June 2023, around 1 in 6 public housing (16%) tenancies were less than 2 years, compared to over 1 in 4 community housing (28%) tenancies.

Public housing had a higher proportion of households with longer tenures, with two thirds (66%) of households having been in the same dwelling for 5 years or more, compared with less than half (46%) of community housing tenancies (Table HOUSEHOLDS.6).

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 58,400 in 2023), SOMIH (900 in 2014 to 1,400 in 2023), and community housing (410 in 2014 to 4,700 in 2023).

Figure HOUSEHOLDS.3: Households by tenure length and social housing program, at June 2023

Number of households, by tenure length, age group and social housing program, at June 2023. This vertical stacked bar graph shows that across the social housing programs (public housing, community housing and SOMIH), the most common tenure length for all age groups was 10 to (less than) 20 years (90,200). For community housing, the most common tenure length was 2 to less than 5 years for all age groups (28,300), whereas the most common for SOMIH was 5 to less than 10 years (3,200). The most common tenure length for public housing was 10 to less than 20 years (68,300).

Age groups

The length of tenure also differs considerably by the age of the main tenant in the household. At June 2023, for public housing, the number of shorter tenure lengths (less than 2 years) was relatively similar for all reported age groups (ranging from 8,000 to 8,700) apart from the 15–24 years group (3,200).

The longer the tenure length, the higher the proportion of main tenants who were aged 65 or older. As expected, of the 19,000 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).

Indigenous households

The length of tenure for Indigenous households varied depending upon the housing program. Of Indigenous households in social housing at June 2023 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.7):

  • 19% of those in public housing, 36% of those in SOMIH and 13% of those in community housing had been in the same tenure for more than a decade.
  • 28% of public housing, 15% of SOMIH and 38% of community housing had been in the same tenure for less than two years.

Data for Indigenous community housing were not available.

Waiting lists

The proportion of greatest need households on public housing and SOMIH waiting lists has been increasing since 2014.

In all states and territories, access to social housing is managed through the use of waiting lists with priority given to those considered to be high priority applicants (see Priority Groups). Fluctuations in the number of people on waiting lists are not necessarily measures of changes in underlying demand for social housing. Factors that may influence the length of waiting lists include changes to allocation policies, priorities, and eligibility criteria put in place by state/territory housing authorities, as well as their implementation (Dockery et al. 2008).

For further details, see the Technical notes.

At June 2023, the number of households on a waiting list (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 on a waiting list for a SOMIH dwelling (up from 8,000 at June 2014).

Of those applicants on a waiting list at June 2023 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.26):

  • There were 69,700 greatest need households on the waiting list for public housing (41% of all households on the waiting list); an increase from 43,200 at June 2014 (28% of all households).
  • There were over 7,900 greatest need households waiting for SOMIH dwellings (52% of all households), up from 3,800 at June 2014 (48% of all households).

Waiting list data for both community housing and Indigenous community housing were unavailable.

Table Figure HOUSEHOLDS.4: Households on the waiting list by public housing and SOMIH, at June 2014 to 2023

Number of households on a waiting list, by greatest need status, for public housing and SOMIH, 2014 to 2022. This vertical stacked bar graph shows that the number of greatest need households on waiting list has increased for public housing, with 70,000 (41%) in 2023, compared to 43,000 (28%) in 2014. For SOMIH, the number of greatest need households on the waiting list has increased, with 7,900 (52%) in 2023, compared with 3,800 (48%) in 2014.

State and territory

There were some notable differences in the proportion of new greatest need households on the waiting lists among the states and territories, which is a result of the varying criteria for priority needs across jurisdictions. For more information, see the technical notes.

Of the applicants on the waiting list at June 2023 (Table HOUSEHOLDS.27):

  • For public housing, the proportion of applicants that were greatest need has increased significantly in many states. In Victoria, 54% of applicants were greatest need in 2023, compared to 29% in 2014.
  • In South Australia, the proportion of those in greatest need applying for SOMIH increased from 7.1% in 2014 to 31% in 2023.

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

Glossary

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