Australia's housing shortage grows by the day

Every day, the Albanese government’s Housing Accord target of building 1.2 million homes over five years slips further from reach.

Data released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the rate of monthly dwelling approvals in trend terms stalled at just under 16,500 for the month of December, 3,500 below the 20,000 run rate to meet Labor’s housing target:

In the 2025 calendar year, 195,700 dwellings were approved for construction, roughly 44,000 fewer than the 240,000 run rate required to meet the Housing Accord target:

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

Share

About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.

Australia’s housing shortage grows by the day