The Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) will fund 85 new social homes in Canberra, and more than 5,000 across Australia.

The houses will be built in the Inner North, Inner South and Gungahlin for older women at risk of homelessness, veterans, women and children escaping situations of family or domestic violence, and frontline workers, housing minister Clare O’Neil MP said.

“Every one of these new homes represents hope for a family doing it tough,” Ms O’Neil said. “These homes will give people the foundation they need to rebuild their lives.”

The ACT Government is committed to delivering 5,000 more public, community, and affordable rental dwellings by the end of 2030.

The ACT’s last 17 homes under the Commonwealth-funded Social Housing Accelerator Program were built earlier this month.

Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry MLA said: “Every Canberran should have an equal chance to find a place to call home. This investment by the Labor-led Commonwealth Government in local social housing projects will make a real difference for Canberrans with lower incomes.

“An additional 85 homes in the ACT will have a huge impact. It means more Canberrans will have a safe and secure place to call home.”

ACTCOSS welcomed the government’s commitment to build 85 more social housing dwellings.

“The ACT Government has pledged to reverse the multi-decade trend of declining public housing as a proportion of all housing,” CEO Dr Devin  Bowles said. “Each new dwelling is a step toward honouring that promise. Each new dwelling is a better life for a family or person in need.

“Much work remains if the Government is to meet its commitments over the next three years, and we encourage both levels of Government to continue to work together to ensure that every Canberran has a place to call home. Levels of homelessness remain far too high.”

Master Builders ACT welcomed initiatives that increase housing supply and variety for Canberrans. CEO Anna Neelagama said: “Our members stand ready to build, especially where it closes the gap between demand and supply for social and affordable housing.”

The Canberra Liberals, however, dismissed the ACT government’s election promise to deliver 30,000 new homes by 2030 as a pipedream, arguing that the number of approvals for housing dwellings had fallen to record lows. Only 2,036 dwellings were approved in 2024–25 — 2,500 less than in 2023-24 (4,547 dwellings), according to ABS figures.

“To have over 2,500 less dwellings approved compared to last year is just appalling,” opposition leader Leanne Castley MLA said.

“In the pre-Budget good-news stories, Labor tried to convince people they had a plan to help deal with the housing crisis through more approvals. But now the Budget has dropped, it was nothing more than a cynical ploy to garner good news and distract from their ‘health tax’, their payroll tax hikes and the other range of tax hikes that will make the challenge of meeting household costs even worse.”

Ms Castley also accused treasurer Chris Steel MLA of quietly increasing costs and prices for ACT services and for the building and planning industries, putting pressure on the already struggling sector.

“The timing of the building and planning cost increase couldn’t come at a worse moment for the industry,” Ms Castley said.

“We saw last week ACT Labor introduce or increase 25 taxes across the board, driving up costs for Canberrans. They’ve hiked up payroll tax even though the Treasurer said it would hurt the least well-off. Now he’s making it harder to build houses and homes, which will threaten more jobs.”

A government spokesman said that the number of development applications made by the construction industry was driven by market factors including the cost of building materials and interest rates.

“The ACT Government is making significant planning reforms to support more housing and releasing land for around 26,000 homes over the next five years, but ultimately it is the market that will determine the number of approvals put forward.”

The ACT Territory Planning Authority assessed 85 per cent of development applications on time in May; 235 DAs were active.