There is no denying the housing crisis Australia is in. It is a long-standing crisis, fundamentally driven by the failure to deliver enough housing of all types – from social housing through to market home ownership. At its heart, this crisis is about insufficient supply, but many contributing factors are making it more acute – the resumption of migration at pace, rising interest rates, skills shortages, elevated construction company insolvencies, weak consumer confidence and cost inflation to name just a few. These all combine to create an environment in which prices and rents are growing faster than wages, rental vacancies are near all-time lows, 169,000 households are on public housing waiting lists, 122,000 people are experiencing homelessness and projected housing supply is very low.

Australia’s housing market is far from healthy. An unhealthy market has periods of rampant price growth, is unable to produce enough supply to meet demand, is overly reliant on an unsupported private market to address most of Australia’s shelter needs, creates scarcity and cannot match the rich expanse of demand with a breadth of housing choice.

In this report, the Council presents an overview of the state and functioning of Australia’s housing system. It assesses demand and supply conditions and how these factors influence dwelling prices and rents. The report assesses housing affordability in Australia across tenure, age and income groups, and focuses in detail on cohorts of vulnerable people.

The report also outlines the Council’s projections for the long-term housing outlook and provides an assessment of the suitability of the Australian Government’s 1.2 million new homes target, which forms part of the National Housing Accord. The report concludes by identifying focus areas for improving the housing system.