Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF)

We know that too many Australians are finding it difficult to find a safe, affordable place to call home.

And for those who do have a place, many are facing increasing pressures from rising rents and higher mortgage payments.  

This current housing crisis is a supply issue and it has been developing for a long time.

We need more rental properties. We need more for-purchase properties, more social and affordable properties—more properties across the housing spectrum.  

And we have a plan to deliver it through the establishment of the Housing Australia Future Fund.

We took the Housing Australia Future Fund to the election.

It’s the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in a decade.

Over the first five years, it will:

• Build 20,000 new social housing properties, including 4,000 homes for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness,
• Build 10,000 affordable homes for the heroes of the pandemic – frontline workers like police, nurses and cleaners that kept us safe,
• Directly support 21,500 full-time jobs across the construction industry and broader economy, per year, over 5 years, nationwide – One in 10 direct workers on site will be apprentices.
• Provide $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvements of housing in remote Indigenous communities, where some of the worst housing standards in the world are endured by our First Nations people,
• Invest $100 million in crisis and transitional housing for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence, and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness, and
• Invest $30 million to build housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.

After the first five years, a portion of the investment returns will be available to fund acute housing needs each year, in perpetuity. This funding will be used for additional crisis housing, transitional housing and long-term social housing in parts of the country with the greatest need.

This is not just good social policy, it’s also good economic policy.

The Fund is backed by numerous stakeholders, including housing experts, community housing providers, Housing Ministers from across the country, every single cross bench MP except Greens political party MPs and multiple members of the Senate cross bench.

The Coalition and the Greens teamed up in Budget week to delay this vital legislation.

But the HAFF is just one of the Government’s election commitments. It is not the only thing we’re doing, but it is essential in creating an ongoing, secure source of funding for social and affordable rental homes.