Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer on the housing affordability crisis. Treasurer, using the standard definition of affordable housing as used by the Victorian government where a person on a low income pays no more than 30 per cent of their income on rent or other housing costs, what proportion of the government's promised one million homes will be affordable, or will the vast majority of these homes be unaffordable homes built by private property developers?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the question from the member for Griffith about the government's housing accord. The government's intention when it comes to the housing accord is to recognise extremely low vacancy rates and extremely high rents and to try to do something about it so that more people can live closer to where the jobs and opportunities are. What we've done, as the member is aware, is brought together state and territory governments, local governments, the building industry, the super sector and other institutional investors to sign up to a target of affordable homes to be built—one million from 2024 to 2029. We hope that, by bringing people together and by providing an element of government co-investment—we can subsidise the rental returns of the builders, the community housing providers and the super funds—we take something that is not appealing enough to investors and make it a bit more appealing and, most importantly of all, we build more housing stock.

As the member is aware—and I've heard the member talk about this on a number of occasions—we do have a problem in this country when it comes to the supply of affordable rental properties. We are trying to do something about it. We do see a leadership role for the Commonwealth in dealing with the problem that has been with us for too long. That is what the housing accord is all about—building more affordable properties—and that's what we intend to do.