Social housing made up 4.69% of Australia’s residential dwellings in June 2012 and 3.98% in June 2025, and the share fell in each of the thirteen years that followed. Over that period the country added about 2.26 million dwellings; the social housing stock grew by 25,311, a little over one in every hundred. The stock is larger than it was in 2012, despite small falls in two years, but it has grown far more slowly than housing as a whole, and its make-up has changed underneath: public housing is down by 44,837 dwellings since 2006, community housing up by 88,322.
Node reading for Housing Policy (Affordable, Social) (21330): NIL RETURN. This article rests on the source data alone.
What is counted as social housing
Social housing is rental housing provided below market rents to eligible households by governments or not-for-profit organisations. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) counts it across four programs: public housing, owned and managed by state and territory housing authorities; community housing, managed by not-for-profit providers; state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH); and Indigenous community housing. Its count at 30 June each year is the national measure of the stock, and it is the numerator throughout this article.
Two denominators are used, because each answers a slightly different question. The first is the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) count of all residential dwellings, published quarterly with its estimates of the value of the dwelling stock, which gives social housing as a share of the dwelling stock. The second is the AIHW’s own published ratio, social housing households as a share of all households. The first is calculated by APN from AIHW and ABS counts; the second is published by the AIHW. They use different numerators, dwellings and households, and different denominators, and both decline across the period.
The share, year by year
On the dwelling measure, the share was 4.69% in June 2012 and fell in each of the following thirteen years, to 3.98% in June 2025. Every year’s figure was lower than the one before, though only marginally in the year to June 2024, from 4.04% to 4.03%, and the latest is the lowest in the series. The household measure, which begins earlier, shows the same decline: 4.8% of households in 2011 and 2012, 4.0% in 2025.
Social housing as a share of dwellings and of households, 2008 to 2025
Per cent. Dwelling share: AIHW social housing dwellings at 30 June divided by the ABS number of residential dwellings in the June quarter; the ABS count begins in September 2011, so the dwelling share begins in June 2012. Household share: as published by the AIHW, with household numbers from ABS household projections. Sources: AIHW, Housing assistance in Australia 2026, tables DWELLINGS.1 and SOCIALSHARE.1; ABS, Total Value of Dwellings, June quarter 2026.
A growing stock in a faster-growing market
The fall in the share is not a fall in the number of dwellings. The social housing stock grew by 5.9% between June 2012 and June 2025, from 426,488 to 451,799. Over the same period the residential dwelling stock grew by 24.8%. Of the roughly 2.26 million dwellings added, 25,311 were added to the social housing stock — about 1.1 in every hundred, against a starting share of more than four and a half.
The additions were uneven. The stock fell outright in two years, to June 2014 and June 2020, and grew by 45 dwellings in the year to June 2025, after its largest rise of the period, 6,132, the year before. Holding the June 2012 share would have required about 532,400 social housing dwellings in June 2025, some 80,600 more than the 451,799 counted.
Social housing dwellings and all residential dwellings, indexed to June 2012 = 100
Index, June 2012 = 100. Sources: AIHW, Housing assistance in Australia 2026, table DWELLINGS.1; ABS, Total Value of Dwellings, June quarter 2026, series A83728645A.
What the stock is made of
The total conceals a change in who owns and manages the stock. Public housing fell from 341,378 dwellings in 2006 to 296,541 in 2025, and was lower in every year to 2022 than in the year before. Community housing rose from 30,103 to 118,425. Public housing’s share of the stock went from 84.0% to 65.6%; community housing’s from 7.4% to 26.2%.
Part of that movement is transfer rather than construction or loss. The AIHW records large transfers of dwellings from public housing or SOMIH to community housing providers in South Australia in 2017–18 and New South Wales in 2018–19, and from public housing to SOMIH in New South Wales in 2023–24 and 2024–25. A transfer moves a dwelling between programs and leaves the total unchanged. Northern Territory remote public housing has also been reported under three programs: within Indigenous community housing before 2009, separately from 2009 to 2016, and within SOMIH from 2017. Public-sector dwelling commencements and completions are a separate measure, covered in Government-Owned Dwelling Delivery, Quarter by Quarter. The ABS classifies those dwellings by their intended owner, so they include dwellings built by private builders under government contract, can exclude dwellings built for community housing providers, and are not a measure of social housing.
Social housing dwellings by program, 2006 to 2025
Thousands of dwellings at 30 June. Public: public housing. Community: community housing, counted in tenancy units. SOMIH: state owned and managed Indigenous housing, including Northern Territory remote public housing where it was reported separately (2009 to 2016). Indigenous community: Indigenous community housing. Source: AIHW, Housing assistance in Australia 2026, table DWELLINGS.1.
| Program | 2006 | 2011 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public housing | 341,378 | 331,371 | 296,541 |
| Community housing | 30,103 | 57,506 | 118,425 |
| State owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH) | 12,893 | 9,820 | 17,163 |
| NT remote public housing | – | 4,765 | – |
| Indigenous community housing | 22,192 | 17,543 | 19,670 |
| All programs | 406,566 | 421,005 | 451,799 |
Dwellings at 30 June. The AIHW advises caution in comparing Indigenous community housing counts over time. Source: AIHW, Housing assistance in Australia 2026, table DWELLINGS.1.
By state and territory
The AIHW publishes its household share for each state and territory. Between 2011 and 2025 it fell in five of the six states and in the Australian Capital Territory, which recorded the largest fall, from 8.2% to 6.2%. Tasmania is the one state where it rose, from 5.9% to 6.2%. South Australia and Tasmania have the highest shares among the states.
The Northern Territory’s figure is not comparable across the period. Its SOMIH households were first reported in 2018, and its published share steps from 9.4% in 2017 to 14.6% in 2018 largely on that change, so it is shown in the table but not the chart.
Change in the social housing share of households, 2011 to 2025
Percentage points; the table below gives each share in 2011 and 2025. The Northern Territory is omitted because its series is not comparable across 2017 and 2018. Source: AIHW, Housing assistance in Australia 2026, table SOCIALSHARE.1.
| State or territory | 2011 | 2025 | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 5.3% | 4.5% | −0.8 |
| Victoria | 3.6% | 3.0% | −0.6 |
| Queensland | 4.1% | 3.5% | −0.6 |
| Western Australia | 4.6% | 3.8% | −0.8 |
| South Australia | 7.1% | 5.7% | −1.4 |
| Tasmania | 5.9% | 6.2% | +0.3 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 8.2% | 6.2% | −2.0 |
| Northern Territory | 10.2% | 13.9% | Not comparable |
| Australia | 4.8% | 4.0% | −0.8 |
Social housing households as a share of all households, at 30 June, as published by the AIHW. Northern Territory figures before 2018 exclude SOMIH households. Source: AIHW, Housing assistance in Australia 2026, table SOCIALSHARE.1.
What this measure does not show
A share of the stock says nothing about need. It does not measure how many households are waiting for social housing, how long they wait, or whether the dwellings are the right size and in the right places; those are separate questions with their own, less comparable, data. It also treats every dwelling alike: a transfer from public to community housing leaves the share unchanged, whatever it changes for the tenants.
The counts carry their own limits. The AIHW notes that community housing and Indigenous community housing figures are incomplete in some jurisdictions, and that its data may not be comparable across jurisdictions or over time. Community housing is counted in tenancy units. The ABS dwelling count includes unoccupied dwellings, so the dwelling share sits a little below what a share of occupied dwellings would show. The household share rests on ABS household projections rather than a count, and its denominator moves to a new projection series at 2011, 2016 and 2021, so state changes across those years include the effect of rebasing. SOMIH and Indigenous community housing are included in every total here, as in the AIHW’s own count, and are not analysed separately.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
