Under the National Planning Reform Blueprint, each state and territory is asked to report how many new homes its land could accommodate. In the September 2025 round, published by Treasury in June 2026, 7 of the 8 gave a figure for greenfield land and 3 gave one for urban infill. The compiled returns state no definitions, and the jurisdictions’ own progress reports do not explain them. Those reports count capacity in different ways, among them dwellings a strategic plan could accommodate, homes enabled by recent rezonings, lots in the development pipeline, dwellings supported by a land release program. Western Australia publishes an annual measure of the land zoned for housing itself: 117,770 hectares across Perth, Peel and Greater Bunbury at the end of 2024, 22% of it undeveloped. A national figure for how much housing zoned land can hold cannot be built from what is published, and none exists: NIL RETURN.
Node reading for Planning Regulations & Zoning Policy (21320): NIL RETURN. This article rests on the source data alone.
What zoned capacity means
Zoning is the part of a planning scheme that divides land into zones and states what may be built in each: which uses are allowed, how high, how dense. Zoned capacity is the number of dwellings the rules would allow on land already zoned for housing, if it were all developed as permitted. It is an upper bound set by the rules, not a count of homes that will be built. Between the two sit servicing (water, sewerage, roads and power), whether a project pays for itself at current prices and costs, land ownership, and the time it takes to subdivide and build.
A national estimate would show how much new housing the rules already allow, before any of those later steps. National Cabinet asked each jurisdiction for one.
What the states reported to National Cabinet
The National Planning Reform Blueprint, agreed by National Cabinet in August 2023, sets 10 measures to lift housing supply, and each jurisdiction reports its progress against them. The metric report for the September 2025 round, the fourth, compiled and published by Treasury in June 2026, asks each jurisdiction for an estimate of the dwellings that greenfield land and urban infill could accommodate.
| Jurisdiction | Greenfield capacity, dwellings | Urban infill capacity, dwellings |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 197,171 | Not submitted |
| Victoria | 211,000 | Not available |
| Queensland | Not submitted | Not submitted |
| South Australia | 192,490 | 307,775 |
| Western Australia | 118,900 (flagged) | Not submitted |
| Tasmania | 25,525 | 60,731 |
| Northern Territory | 13,580 | 15,875 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 35,260 | See below |
| Australia | NIL RETURN | NIL RETURN |
As reported. Not submitted and Not available are the returns’ own entries; the Australian Capital Territory’s infill entry reads “See below”, and Western Australia’s greenfield figure carries a marker. Neither note is in the published file. Source: Treasury, National Planning Reform Blueprint, Metric report compiled, September 2025 (published June 2026), Measures 6 and 10.
Seven jurisdictions reported a greenfield figure; Queensland did not submit one. Three reported an infill figure: South Australia 307,775, Tasmania 60,731 and the Northern Territory 15,875. New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia did not submit an infill figure, and Victoria’s return reads “Not available”. The three most populous states reported no infill figure.
The figures cannot be added up. The compiled returns do not say what a greenfield or infill dwelling counts: whether land must already be zoned, whether it must be serviced, whether a figure is lots or dwellings, or at what date. Nor are they explained in the eight progress reports published with them: none of the ten figures in the table above appears in the text of those reports.
What each jurisdiction counts instead
Each progress report does describe capacity, but each measures something different.
| Jurisdiction | What its progress report counts | Figure | As at |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Homes enabled by state significant rezonings finalised in the period | 11,360 homes, 8 rezonings | Six months to September 2025 |
| Victoria | Housing capacity targets for every council area, and the lot pipeline (titled and proposed lots) | Each council’s share of the 2.24 million extra homes in the Housing Statement | Targets in planning schemes from September 2025 |
| Queensland | No estimate of zoned, greenfield or infill capacity; capacity is given for declared Priority Development Areas and for government sites released to market | NIL RETURN (four Priority Development Areas: up to 62,500 homes; released sites: upwards of 5,000 homes) | September 2025 |
| South Australia | Potential greenfield dwellings on land removed from the Environment and Food Production Areas, to be rezoned in stages | About 61,500 dwellings | May 2025 |
| Western Australia | Dwellings the Perth and Peel strategic plan can accommodate, including zoned and not-yet-zoned land | 1,000,210 dwellings | March 2018 plan |
| Tasmania | Dwellings enabled on government land rezoned by Housing Land Supply Orders | Up to 1,000 dwellings, 15 orders | Cumulative since 2018 |
| Northern Territory | Dwellings on land under development, and infill opportunities and vacant lots, in four urban centres | 4,853 and 2,067 dwellings | September 2025 |
| Australian Capital Territory | Dwellings supported by the five-year government land release program | About 25,948 dwellings | 2025–26 to 2029–30 |
Source: the jurisdictions’ National Planning Reform Blueprint progress reports, September 2025 (published June 2026). Victoria’s targets are a planned share of new homes, not an estimate of what current zoning allows.
These are not versions of one measure. Western Australia’s figure is what a strategic plan could accommodate, and includes land not yet zoned. South Australia’s is land removed from the Environment and Food Production Areas in May 2025, to be rezoned in stages. The three areas the South Australian report lists add to 61,200 dwellings, against the approximately 61,500 it states. New South Wales reports the homes enabled by rezonings finished in one six-month period, which is a flow, not a stock. The Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory count land in the development and release pipeline. Tasmania counts one rezoning mechanism. Queensland’s report gives capacity for declared Priority Development Areas and for government sites released to market, not for zoned land.
Western Australia: the strategic plan
Western Australia gives the fullest account. Its strategic plan for Perth and Peel, published in March 2018, identifies land for about one million new homes. Of that total, 414,120 are expected through infill of existing urban areas and 398,460 on undeveloped land already zoned, with the remainder on land identified for urban expansion or still under investigation.
Dwelling capacity identified in Perth and [email protected], by land type
Thousands of dwellings. Plan published March 2018. Undeveloped zoned land covers 26,000 hectares, urban expansion and investigation land 9,450 hectares, and resolved planning investigation areas 6,738 hectares. Source: Western Australia, National Planning Reform Blueprint progress report, September 2025, table 1.
The same plan requires an additional 800,000 homes by 2050, at least 47% of them, 380,000, through infill. Capacity for one million homes therefore exceeds the homes the plan needs. That comparison is Western Australia’s own, on its own definitions, and cannot be repeated for any other state from what is published.
Western Australia: land zoned for housing, measured each year
Western Australia also publishes an annual measure of the zoned land itself. Its Urban Growth Monitor, in its seventeenth edition, maps land zoned Urban and Urban Deferred under the region schemes for Perth, Peel and Greater Bunbury, and measures how much of it has been developed.
Land zoned for urban development, by sub-region, end of 2024
Thousands of hectares. Land zoned Urban or Urban Deferred under the region schemes, as at 31 December 2024. Figures are rounded by the source. Source: Western Australian Planning Commission, Urban Growth Monitor 17 (April 2026), table 1.
At the end of 2024, 117,770 hectares were zoned for urban development across the three regions. 91,700 hectares (78%) were developed and 26,070 hectares were not. The Central sub-region of Perth is 97% developed, with 880 hectares undeveloped. The largest undeveloped stock is in the North-West sub-region, at 8,000 hectares, and Greater Bunbury is the least developed region at 64%. The monitor puts the undeveloped Urban-zoned land in Perth and Peel at about 20 times the annual rate at which land is consumed by development.
These are hectares, not dwellings. How many homes the undeveloped land holds depends on the density at which it is built, and the monitor states that its analysis is not intended as commentary on lot or housing supply relative to demand.
Rezoning as a flow: New South Wales
New South Wales reports capacity added, rather than capacity held. In the six months to September 2025, eight state significant rezonings were finalised, enabling about 11,360 homes.
Homes enabled by state significant rezonings finalised, New South Wales, six months to September 2025
Dwellings, approximate, as reported. Four of the eight include an affordable housing share, from 15% to 50% of dwellings. Source: New South Wales, National Planning Reform Blueprint progress report, September 2025, table 1.
The figure measures what these rezonings allow, not what the rest of the state’s zoned land holds, so it cannot be set against any other jurisdiction’s stock. The planning instruments in force in each jurisdiction are mapped in What Governs Housing: The Statute Book, Mapped.
Why there is no national figure
A national figure needs one definition applied everywhere: which land counts, whether it must be zoned or also serviced, and whether the unit is a lot or a dwelling. The Blueprint asked for a common estimate, but the returns carry no definitions, three of the eight jurisdictions sent no infill figure and one sent no greenfield figure, and the progress reports each measure capacity in their own way. Every jurisdiction except Queensland publishes a statewide zone layer (none was found for Queensland), but each uses its own zone categories, so the layers give zoned area, not dwelling capacity, and only after a common classification is imposed. No national figure for the housing capacity of zoned land can be built from what is published: NIL RETURN.
What this does not show
Capacity is not supply and it is not a forecast. A zoned site may not be serviced, may not be viable to develop at current prices and costs, or may simply not be offered for development. The figures here describe what the rules and plans allow, as each jurisdiction chooses to report it, and they carry different dates, from Western Australia’s 2018 plan to the six months to September 2025. Nothing here ranks the states, because the figures do not measure the same thing. State land supply reports in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales publish further detail on their own bases and are not reproduced here.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
