Federal Budget 2024: Housing package slammed as ‘business as usual’  

The 2024 federal budget’s $6.2 billion housing package has been slammed for failing to go far enough to fix the affordability crisis, as other groups welcomed the new initiatives.  

The housing package aims to unlock more affordable housing, ease up infrastructure bottlenecks and boost student housing all without fuelling inflation. 

Of the $6.2 billion in new funding announced on Tuesday, $1.9 billion will go towards loans to deliver new social and affordable homes, while $1 billion will be directed towards ‘enabling infrastructure’ needed to connect essential services to new homes, such as roads, water and power.

It adds to the more-than $11 billion in housing measures already announced last week, although some of those initiatives were repurposed funding and joint funding agreements with the states and territories.

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said the federal government had delivered a budget that would keep pushing up housing costs for Australians who were already battling a brutal housing market. 

“What the government has announced is a business as usual spend that is nowhere near enough to shift the dial on the housing crisis,” Ms Azize said. 

“The government’s ‘new’ funding for social housing is a repackaging of existing initiatives, offering loans instead of providing real funding, and the continuation of a funding agreement with the states and territories – something the Commonwealth routinely renews for other essential services like education and health.”  

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the government had failed to address inflation and the cost-of-living pain being felt by households and businesses across the country.  

“Labor has fuelled the housing and rental crisis with unprecedented immigration at a time when housing approvals are at an 11-year low,” he said.  

Mr Taylor said the typical Australian household with a mortgage was more than $35,000 worse off under the government’s budgets so far due to inflation and higher interest rates.  

Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt said the government wasn’t doing enough for renters.  

“An extra $1.30 a day for a quarter of renters will do nothing when average rents are set to go up by $46 a week,” Mr Bandt said. 

“Labor’s budget allows unlimited rent rises and refuses to put in place a rent freeze.” 

Increasing housing supply  

To boost housing supply, the 2024 budget will invest a further $1 billion for the states and territories to deliver roads and other housing infrastructure.  

Property Council of Australia chief executive Mike Zorbas said the new money for last mile infrastructure to unlock new housing supply was only a downpayment on the money needed to bridge the housing gap and better plan all aspects of our cities. 

“This budget contains solid investment in housing – particularly for the most vulnerable – and the better planning of our cities,” Mr Zorbas said.  

“To hit 1.2 million homes by 2029, we need to improve investment settings, incentivise housing approvals, further boost gold medal housing options including retirement living, purpose-built student accommodation and build-to-rent housing and bring more tradies in from overseas to complement domestic capacity.”  

The housing supply initiatives were also welcomed by the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), Master Builders Australia (MBA) and Housing Industry Association (HIA). 

The budget also included additional loans worth up to $1.9 billion for community housing providers and other charities to support the delivery of the 40,000 social and affordable homes over the next five years. 

Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said the Labor government’s scale of overall social housing commitments stood in stark contrast to the previous government’s cuts to affordable housing programs. 

“The income support and housing measures in this budget will make an important dent in our crisis, however they will not resolve it,” Ms Colvin said. 

Rent support 

Nearly one million households will benefit from a 10% boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) that will cost $1.9 billion over five years.  

National Shelter chief executive Emma Greenhalgh said the further increase to CRA would continue to provide some relief to private rental households in housing stress. 

“However, we still need to see a more meaningful response to poverty and cost-of-living for low-income households by significantly increasing income support and allowances,” Ms Greenhalgh said.  

Construction workforce training 

HIA managing director Jocelyn Martin said the $90.6 million commitment to support fee-free training for apprentices and other incentives would help address the shortage of skilled trades people. 

“The shortage of skilled trades remains more acute than at any time prior to the pandemic and is a barrier to increasing supply of new homes,” Ms Martin said.  

MBA chief executive Denita Wawn welcomed funding to establish the Building Women’s Careers Program. 

“Attracting more women in construction plays a critical role in making sure we can attract the half a million workers needed over the next five years,” she said. 

Student housing  

The government also announced it would develop regulations that require universities to increase their supply of student housing.  

Student Accommodation Council executive director Torie Brown said the government needed to be careful in how they implemented the student housing reforms.  

“There is a lot of capital already invested and looking to invest in Australian PBSA – and we want universities to work with the existing private sector rather than being forced to compete,” Ms Brown said.  

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