Social and affordable housing: needs, costs and subsidy gaps by region

Building on earlier City Futures analysis for AHURI and CHIA NSW/Homelessness NSW, this project quantifies and analyses:

1. the estimated unmet housing need in different housing markets across Australia, both current and projected;
2. the estimated costs of delivering social and affordable housing into those markets; and
3. the resulting ‘subsidy gap’ between the cost of delivering the needed housing and the potential income it generates through tenant payments and other sources of income.

The first phase of the project draws on the recently released 2021 Australian Census data to identify households in rental stress or facing homelessness across Australia. The second phase of the project unpacks the costs of delivering the housing needed in these markets, and the subsidy needed to make such housing feasible given the limited operational revenue low-income tenants can generate.