Housing assistance in Australia

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

Social housing dwellings

At June 2024, (Table DWELLINGS.1):

• 66% or 298,000 dwellings were public housing (PH)
• 26% or 119,000 dwellings were community housing (CH)
• 3.5% or 15,900 dwellings were state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH)
• 4.3% or 19,400 dwellings were Indigenous community housing (ICH).

Changes to social housing dwellings over time

From 2006 to 2024 (Figure DWELLINGS.1; Table DWELLINGS.1):

• The number of public housing dwellings decreased from 341,000 in 2006 to 298,000 in 2024.
• The number of community housing dwellings increased almost four-fold, from 30,100 in 2006 to 119,000 in 2024.
• There was a decrease in the number of Indigenous community housing dwellings from 22,200 in 2006 to 19,400 in 2024. However, the number of Indigenous community housing dwellings increased by 400 in the past year, from 19,000 in 2023.
• The number of SOMIH dwellings has fluctuated over the past 15 years due to stock transfers. The number of dwellings in 2024 (15,900) is higher than previous years.

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

Variation between states and territories

At June 2024, 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 public and community housing dwellings (94,500 and 54,400 dwellings, respectively).
• For New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory, most dwellings were public housing (59–86%), followed by community housing (14–34%).
• Tasmania had more community housing dwellings (10,100 or 66%) than public housing dwellings (5,100 or 33%).
• The largest number of Northern Territory social housing dwellings were in the SOMIH program (44% or 5,700), followed by public housing (35% or 4,600 dwellings).
• The Northern Territory had the most SOMIH dwellings of any state or territory.
• For Indigenous community housing, New South Wales (6,500) had the largest number of dwellings, followed by Queensland (5,400 dwellings). The Northern Territory had the highest proportion of Indigenous community housing dwellings (15% or 1,900).

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 2023: 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 2024 (Table DWELLINGS.3):

• Most public and community housing dwellings were in Major cities (76% and 66% of dwellings, respectively).
• For SOMIH, around a third of dwellings were in Major cities (31%) and about a third (30%) were in Very remote areas. The transfer of around 1,600 dwellings from public housing to SOMIH in NSW during 2023–24 increased the number of SOMIH dwellings in Major cities compared with previous years.
• Most Indigenous community housing dwellings were in Very remote areas (6,900 or 46%).

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 2024, the regions with the highest number of social housing dwellings were (Figure DWELLINGS.3; Table DWELLINGS.4):

• Melbourne – Inner (19,500) 
• Sydney – Parramatta (14,300)
• Sydney – City and Inner South (14,100)
• Sydney – Inner South West (13,600) 
• Adelaide – North (13,200)
  • The highest number of public housing and community housing dwellings were in Melbourne – Inner (14,500 and 5,100 respectively) 
  • The highest number of SOMIH dwellings were in Northern Territory – Outback (5,300)

Similarly, across Local Government Areas (LGA), Brisbane (19,300) had the highest total number of social housing dwellings, followed by the ACT (12,700), Sydney (11,200), Canterbury – Bankstown (10,500) and Blacktown (10,300) (Table DWELLINGS.5).

Occupancy

In Australia, social housing occupancy rates have remained high year to year. At June 2024, 97% of public housing dwellings were occupied and 95% for community housing. Occupancy rates of Indigenous community housing (94%) and SOMIH (93%) were also high (Table DWELLINGS.6). For all housing programs, occupancy rates were lower in Very remote areas compared to Major cities (Table DWELLINGS.7).

At June 2024 (Table DWELLINGS.6):

• For public housing, the highest occupancy rates were in Queensland (98%) and New South Wales (97%). The lowest occupancy rate was in the Australian Capital Territory (94%).
• The highest occupancy rate for SOMIH was in Queensland (98%) and the lowest was the Northern Territory (87%).
• For community housing, the highest occupancy rate was in the Northern Territory (98%), and the lowest was in the Australian Capital Territory (83%).
• For Indigenous Community Housing, Tasmania had the highest rate of occupancy (98%), with the lowest rate in Western Australia (87%).

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 2023: tenant satisfaction with maintenance services).

At June 2024, almost all public housing dwellings were tenantable (99% or 294,000); higher than the proportion of SOMIH (97% or 15,400) and community housing dwellings (93% or 111,000) (Table DWELLINGS.8).

Data were not available for Indigenous community housing dwellings.

Dwelling attributes

Dwelling type

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

At June 2024, 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 (51%), followed by a separate house (29%). In comparison, the vast majority of SOMIH dwellings were a separate house (83%), followed by a relatively small proportion of semi-detached, townhouse etc (15%). This pattern of SOMIH dwelling types likely reflects the location of dwellings and the target group (Figure DWELLINGS.4; Table DWELLINGS.9). 

From June 2012 to 2024 (Figure DWELLINGS.4; Table DWELLINGS.9):

• There was a decrease of around 21,000 separate houses in public housing.
• The number of flat, unit or apartment type dwellings in community housing more than doubled from 25,600 in 2012 to 56,800 in 2024.

Number of bedrooms

At June 2024 (Figure DWELLINGS.4; Table DWELLINGS.10):

• Public housing dwellings were most likely to have 3 bedrooms (35% or 103,700 dwellings), followed by 2 bedroom dwellings (32% or 95,000).
• The majority of SOMIH dwellings were 3 bedroom dwellings (57% or 9,000 dwellings), with very few 1 bedroom dwellings (1.9% or 305).
• Community housing dwellings were most commonly 2 bedroom (37% or 41,300) or 1 bedroom (33% or 36,600) dwellings.
• Around half of Indigenous community housing dwellings were 3 bedroom dwellings (49% or 7,200) and a further 24% (or 3,500) 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 (See the Data quality statements for more information).

At June 2024 there were (Table DWELLINGS.11):

• Around 530 reporting community housing providers across Australia, an increase of 40 providers from the previous year. The majority (71% or 375) of these providers managed less than 50 dwellings.
• Over 200 reporting Indigenous community housing providers. Nearly half of these providers managed fewer than 20 dwellings (Table DWELLINGS.11).