Supporting social and affordable housing under the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord

Announcement date
08 July 2024

Link to announcement 
Housing Australia Investment Mandate Amendment (2024 Measures No. 1) Direction 2024

Problem being addressed
The Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) and the National Housing Accord (Accord) are seeking to increase the supply of social and affordable housing for vulnerable and low-income households.

Proposal
To help address the consistent undersupply of social and affordable housing, the Government committed to establishing the $10 billion HAFF as part of its 2022 election platform. The HAFF is a perpetual fund under the management of the Future Fund Management Agency that provides an ongoing funding stream of a minimum $500 million per year, indexed to the consumer price index from 2029-30, to fund new social and affordable housing and address acute housing needs. The Government’s commitment specifically sets out that this includes the delivery of 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes over five years as well as funding of $324 million over five years to address acute housing needs.
In addition, the Government committed, as part of the Accord signed in October 2022, to fund an additional 10,000 affordable homes.

Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Adequate

Assessment comments
The Impact Analysis (IA) addresses the seven IA questions and follows an appropriate policy development process commensurate with the significance of the problem and magnitude of the proposed intervention. To be considered Good Practice as per the Australian Government Guide to Policy Impact Analysis, the IA would have particularly benefitted from increased quantification of impacts allowing the net benefit to be demonstrably clear.

Regulatory burden
The Treasury estimates these measures will result in an increase in regulatory costs of an average of  $1.5 million per year over five years.