Victoria Hits Last Place in Australia's Housing Rankings

Media release | Tuesday, 23 January 2024 Victoria has fallen further behind the nation in providing public and community housing, with the state cemented in last place for public and community dwellings.

The Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services, released today, reveals public and community housing residents make up just 2.8 per cent of Victoria's households.

This is the lowest percentage in Australia, which has a national average of 4.1 per cent.

The State Government has promised to deliver 80,000 homes a year for the next decade, but failed to make a firm commitment to build desperately needed public and community housing.

Council to Homeless Persons Chief Executive Officer Deborah Di Natale said urgent investment in public and community housing was needed.

"Victoria has the lowest proportion of public and community housing at the same time as the rental crisis is pushing more people into homelessness," she said.

"The Big Housing Build has helped moved thousands of Victorians out of homelessness, and into safe homes. But we need a Big Housing Build every 18 months if we're going to get the state off the bottom of the table on public and community housing.

"Concerningly, there's been no announcements about the future of new public and community housing once the Big Housing Build stops funding new projects from the end of June.

"The state government's housing commitment of 80,000 private developments a year for a decade needs to be matched with a guarantee for some public and community housing. That seems to have been forgotten."

Victoria's statewide rental vacancy rate is just 1.17 per cent, according to the latest PropTrack data, which revealed just 7300 homes were available last month.

Rental prices in Melbourne rose 15.1 per cent in the past 12 months, while regional areas are also facing persistently high prices.

Australia's social housing league table

Source: Productivity Commission