National social housing survey 2025

Receiving quality maintenance services in a timely manner is of great importance to social housing tenants. The 2025 NSHS survey results indicate that SOMIH and community housing tenant satisfaction declined for both day-to-day and emergency maintenance services across Australia. For public housing households, satisfaction with day-to-day maintenance remained at 61% in 2025, while satisfaction with emergency maintenance increased from 71% in 2023 to 73% in 2025 Note: There is variability in the scope of what is included in maintenance services between and within housing programs.

Social housing tenants were more satisfied with emergency maintenance services

‘Emergency services provided when I've no money to get things fixed myself.’ 

Social housing tenants across all programs reported higher satisfaction with the emergency maintenance services (72%) provided by their housing organisation than with day-to-day maintenance services (62%) (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1).

Among public housing tenants, satisfaction rates with day-to-day maintenance services and emergency maintenance services remained relatively unchanged from 2014 to 2021. Satisfaction with both services fell between 2021 and 2023 and then stabilised by 2025. Satisfaction with day-to-day services dropped from 67% in 2021 to 61% in 2023 and remained at 61% in 2025. Satisfaction with emergency maintenance services decreased from 75% in 2021to 71% in 2023, then increased to 73% in 2025 (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1). 

Satisfaction among community housing tenants remained stable at 65% for day-to-day and fell from 75% to 72% for emergency maintenance services between 2023 and 2025.

In 2014, the satisfaction rate of SOMIH tenants with both day-to-day and emergency maintenance services was much lower than the other housing programs, but satisfaction steadily increased over time up until 2021. In 2023, tenants reported a small decline in satisfaction, with day-to-day maintenance satisfaction dropping from 62% to 61%, and emergency maintenance satisfaction falling from 73% to 72%. In 2025, satisfaction with both services declined further, with day-to-day maintenance satisfaction falling from 61% to 48%, and satisfaction with emergency maintenance falling from 72% to 61%.

Public housing: satisfaction with maintenance has decreased

 ‘I am very satisfied except the maintenance work needs to be picked up I have been without a blind in the only window for nearly one year.’

Public housing tenants’ satisfaction with maintenance services varied between states and territories in 2025 (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1). Queensland and Western Australia had the highest satisfaction rates with day-to-day maintenance services (70%), and Queensland had the highest satisfaction rate with emergency maintenance services (82%). Australian Capital Territory had the lowest satisfaction with day-to-day maintenance services (49%) and emergency maintenance services (64%).

Compared with 2014, the most notable changes were for satisfaction with day-to-day maintenance, with Western Australia showing anincrease from 63% to 70%, and the Australian Capital Territory showing a 16 percentage point decrease from 65% in 2014 to 49% in 2025. 

SOMIH: satisfaction with maintenance was variable

‘Maintenance takes too long to fix’. 

In 2025, Queensland showed the highest satisfaction rates for both day-to-day maintenance services (68%) and emergency maintenance services (75%) among SOMIH tenants (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1). Satisfaction rates for both day-to-day and emergency maintenance services were higher in 2025 compared with 2014 for Queensland and Tasmania (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1).   

Community housing: decreased satisfaction with maintenance services

‘As a single mother I don’t need to be worried about maintenance. You can stay in one place, save money, and easily access social services.’ 

In 2025, tenants in community housing reported the highest satisfaction rate with day-to-day maintenance services (65%) compared with other social housing programs. States and territories reported mixed changes in satisfaction with day-to-day maintenance compared with 2023. Victoria recorded the largest improvement, increasing by 6 percentage points from 62% in 2023 to 68% in 2025 (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1).

Western Australian community housing tenants had the highest satisfaction with emergency maintenance services in 2025 (80%), followed by South Australia (75%), Victoria (74%), and Queensland (73%) (Figure Maintenance.1, Table S5.1). 

Tenants living in homes with structural problems

As the number of structural problems increased, tenants reported lower satisfaction with maintenance services. For more robust analysis on the importance of structural problems on overall satisfaction, see the regression analysis.

Tenants living in dwellings with multiple structural problems reported particularly low rates of satisfaction with maintenance services (Figure Maintenance.2, Table S5.4). While the proportions varied between the different social housing programs, the pattern was consistent. Satisfaction rates were highest for tenants living in dwellings with no structural problems and progressively decreased with 1, 2 and 3 or more structural problems. The pattern was more marked with day-to-day maintenance, with tenants in all housing programs having satisfaction rates below 35% when their dwelling had 3 or more structural problems.