The short version
What this evidence tells us.
Housing is simultaneously shelter, a major household expense, a store of wealth, and a connection to work, services and Country. An increase in asset prices can benefit existing owners while making entry harder.
Figures retain their own dates, populations and scope. The complete evidence and original source links remain below.
Evidence and context
Affordability, supply and unmet need
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council's 2026 report provides a consistent financial-year comparison. Between 2019–20 and 2024–25, its new-lease rent-to-income measure increased from 26.6% to 32.8%; the new-mortgage cost-to-income measure increased from 26.6% to 46.1%. These compare modelled costs with median household income; they are not the actual burden of every existing tenant or mortgagor. In the same table, dwelling completions declined from 191,881 to 174,752. Completions are gross additions: net new dwellings in 2024–25 were 152,807. NHSAC, Appendix E, printed p116/PDF p127 (opens in a new tab).
The report also provides December-quarter measures, which must not be mixed with those financial-year averages. Its deposit-saving measure reached 11.2 years in December 2025. The home-ownership rate for 25–34-year-olds was 61% in 1981 and 43% in 2021. The latter compares age groups in different censuses; it does not track the same people. NHSAC, chapters 1 and 3 (opens in a new tab).
Social-housing waiting lists are another warning indicator, with important counting limitations. AIHW reports a consolidated waitlist of about 206,000 households at June 2025, compared with 183,000 at June 2024. Eligibility and recording differ between jurisdictions. Public-housing and state-owned Indigenous-housing lists overlap, so their separate totals must not be added. A waiting-list count also excludes people who need help but never apply or are ineligible. AIHW, households and waitlists (opens in a new tab).
Evidence and context
Geography and quality
| Comparison | Published result | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase access, 2024–25 | NHSAC reports that 8% of homes sold in Tasmania and 18% in Victoria met its median-income affordability test; WA fell from 25% to 17% | Modelled mortgage repayments below 30% of household income; sales mix matters |
| New mortgage, Sydney, December 2025 | Cost-to-income measure 54.7%, versus a 37.7% pre-pandemic ten-year average | New-purchase model, not all Sydney households |
| Regional advertised rent | Regional aggregate $358 in 2019–20 and $548 in 2024–25 in Appendix E | Advertised rents, not all sitting tenants; regional Australia is not one market |
| Housing quality, remote NT example | The department reports Housing for Health work completed at 26 Gunyangara and 108 Yirrkala houses in March 2026 | Program outputs, not new dwelling construction or a measured reduction in illness |
The first three comparisons are in NHSAC, printed pp58,60,116 (opens in a new tab). The NT example comes from the department's June 2026 Healthy Homes update (opens in a new tab), inspected through the web reader after the archive request was denied. It also reports work still underway at Ramingining and Millingimbi; those houses are not counted as completed. The program targets functioning water, sanitation and food-preparation equipment. This is a concrete maintenance example, not a national condition audit.
Overcrowding requires its own population and standard. NHSAC reports about 311,000 overcrowded households in the 2021 Census using the Canadian National Occupancy Standard. Its First Nations chapter discusses why cultural suitability, household composition, disability and connections to Country cannot be reduced to bedroom counts. National homelessness, homelessness-service clients and overcrowded households count different things. NHSAC, printed pp12,78–84 (opens in a new tab).
Evidence and context
Decisions and remaining limits
States and territories control many planning, tenancy and social-housing settings; local government and utilities affect approvals and infrastructure; Commonwealth tax, income support and housing finance influence demand and supply. The Council cautions that buyer assistance can bring purchases forward while adding price pressure where supply is constrained. That is a policy mechanism to investigate, not a quantified effect of a particular scheme in this package.
The usable comparison is affordability alongside supply, tenure, suitability and maintenance. A later place-level comparison needs consistent boundaries, travel times to jobs and essential services, accessible dwellings, rental availability and household incomes. This pass has not established a nationally comparable travel-access measure or building-condition inventory. Regional examples cannot fill those gaps.
Status: checked national and selected geographic baseline; partial for the complete place/access question. We have not reproduced underlying commercial property microdata. The report's rental-stress wording leaves the precise denominator easy to misread, so that series is not used for a new percentage claim here. Preserve the published definition and resolve it before adoption.