No state or territory is on track to meet housing needs over the next five years and Australians lack confidence the crisis will be solved, a national scorecard has found.
Independent advocacy group Amplify said the results of its research, tracking housing delivery and community sentiment on the housing crisis, are “grim”.
Amplify chief executive Georgina Harisson said the promise of an affordable and secure home for Australians “has been broken”.
“We’re not building enough homes and people don’t trust governments to turn it around,” she said.
“Low confidence in housing delivery reflects more than just supply issues, it signals deeper challenges; when people feel disconnected from decision-making, optimism erodes.”
The research, released on Thursday, follows news this week that a key federal housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund, is being audited amid concerns the $10 billion scheme may not be delivering value for money.
The Amplify research showed community confidence in housing delivery is below 50 per cent in every state and territory.
Victoria is on track to meet 90 per cent of its housing target yet has the lowest trust in government nationally (33.4 per cent).
The ACT has made the strongest progress on housing nationally with a headline score of 61.8 per cent, driven by near-target delivery (96.4 per cent) and the highest confidence level (46.1 per cent).
South Australia’s government is the most trusted in the nation on the issue of housing delivery, while Queensland faces a confidence crisis, with just 34 per cent believing housing needs will be met.
“To turn this around, governments need to move beyond partisan housing debates and focus on genuine engagement, building clarity and trust around what’s being done to tackle the housing crisis,” Ms Harisson said.
“That means listening to what people really need, properly engaging with the community and adopting new approaches to accelerate delivery and meet targets.”
The Housing Australia Future Fund was set up in 2023 and aimed to build 40,000 social and affordable homes by 2028.
But construction progress has been slow and there have been reports the average cost to the fund of a home was more than $750,000.
On Wednesday, it was revealed Auditor-General Caralee McLiesh is conducting an audit that is to be tabled in parliament in June 2026.
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