Annual Report 2023–24
Message from the Chair and CEO
As the national housing authority, Housing Australia continues to support pathways to home ownership and provide investment flows to increase the supply of social and affordable housing. Our expanded mandate will help more Australians to access affordable, safe and secure housing, providing them with greater stability from which to build their lives, access employment and a more stable future.
The past year has been a pivotal one as the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) became Housing Australia, taking on additional responsibilities from the Australian Government to help address the nation’s housing challenges.
Over the year, housing supply and affordability continued to impact many Australians. Against this backdrop, Housing Australia supported the delivery of a range of Australian Government programs that are making a meaningful difference to many people around the nation. We helped over 58,000 eligible home buyers to buy their own home; and supported the delivery of more than 2,400 social and affordable homes for Australians in need bringing the total to over 18,800 homes since our inception.
What it means to be Housing Australia
In October 2023, the Australian Government expanded our mandate – at the same time renaming the organisation to Housing Australia.
The expanded mandate includes primary responsibility for co‑investment financing to support the delivery of 40,000 social and affordable homes through the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility (HAFFF) and National Housing Accord Facility (NHAF); as well as an additional $1 billion for the National Housing Infrastructure Facility (NHIF) targeting social housing for specific cohorts.
Further changes were announced in the 2024–25 Federal Budget, including $1.9 billion in concessional loan finance for the HAFFF and NHAF, along with increases to the cap on Housing Australia’s total liabilities by $2.5 billion to $10 billion and our funding to registered CHPs through the Line of Credit facility to a limit of $4 billion.
New initiatives
In January 2024, Housing Australia launched the HAFFF and NHAF programs following extensive consultation and engagement with CHPs, state, territory and local governments, investors and the property and finance sectors with feedback informing design and implementation.
We received strong demand for the first funding round with applications covering a cross section of target cohorts, with projects that can be delivered quickly as a priority.
In September 2024, Housing Australia notified applicants of the outcome of their applications for funding under round one of the HAFFF and NHAF programs, with preferred projects progressing through contract negotiations.
These projects have the potential to deliver more than 13,700 social and affordable homes to Australians in need, including dwellings for women and children escaping domestic violence, Veterans, First Nations people and key workers.
Housing Australia is focused on supporting the delivery of much needed social and affordable housing across the country as quickly as possible, with funding anticipated to go towards projects that will see some of these homes become available for people to occupy as early as this year. Funding is also anticipated to go towards new homes under construction that will become available over the coming months, and homes that will start construction over the next 18 months.
As part of its broader package of housing measures, the Australian Government introduced legislation into Parliament in November 2023 to establish the Help to Buy shared equity scheme that will be administered by Housing Australia. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in February 2024 and is currently before the Senate. Preparatory work has been undertaken including industry engagement to inform design.
Finance to increase the supply of social and affordable housing
During the year, Housing Australia approved $876.8 million in funding for more than 2,400 social and affordable homes through the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator (AHBA) and issued three bonds (including taps to existing bonds) with a total value of $484 million to support AHBA loan facilities. The CHPs are estimated to save $140 million in interest and other fees over the term of the AHBA loans.
Housing Australia is also supporting the delivery of a further 2,242 social and affordable homes with $221.3 million in NHIF financing approved during the period.
Supporting the community housing sector
In 2022, Housing Australia co-funded the development of an environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting standard for the CHP sector, with the first report released in September 2024. The standard, currently being implemented by CHPs, contributes to better measurement of the impact and outcomes of Housing Australia’s activities, building an evidence base to support further investment in the sector.
Support to buy a home
Together with our participating lenders and their broker networks, Housing Australia has now supported over 168,000 eligible home buyers to buy their own home through the Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS) since its launch in January 2020. In the past financial year, the HGS helped over 58,000 people to purchase a home sooner, including over 11,000 key workers and more than 1,000 single parents or single legal guardians.
Access to the HGS was significantly enhanced during the year with the introduction of expanded eligibility criteria and a third major lender joining the participating lender panel. Alongside continued strong demand, this expansion enabled almost one in three first home buyers to be supported by the Scheme in the period, compared with one in 10 in the Scheme’s first full year of operation.
Implementing delivery of large complex programs
In response to our expanded responsibilities including the delivery of large complex programs, we continued to build our internal capability through ongoing investment in people and technology. We scaled up quickly to deliver the new and expanded programs, onboarding almost 60 people over the year to build a staff of 138 as at 30 June 2024.
During this period of substantial change, Housing Australia enhanced its IT capabilities, as well as governance and risk management frameworks, and continued to implement technology and cloud-based applications to streamline operations and future-proof the organisation.
Acknowledgements
On behalf of the Board, we acknowledge the contribution of directors during a period of substantial change and growth. We express our thanks to Teresa Dyson and Tony De Domenico OAM who stepped down during the year, and Jane Hewitt who stepped down in August 2024. We also welcome new directors Cathie Armour, Mary Ploughman and Matina Papathanasiou who joined the Board in October and November 2023.
We would like to acknowledge our former Minister, the Hon Julie Collins MP, Federal Treasury and their respective teams for their strong engagement and support over the past year. We thank outgoing and inaugural CEO, Nathan Dal Bon for his significant contribution to Housing Australia over the past six years.
We look forward to working with incoming CEO Scott Langford, the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, the Hon Clare O’Neil MP and the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women and Minister for Public Service, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher.4
We thank our colleagues across all tiers of government, industry, HGS participating lenders and CHPs, for their collaboration and commitment to working in partnership to resolve the nation’s housing challenges. We also express our gratitude to Housing Australia employees, who continued to demonstrate an unwavering commitment and passion for helping people into homes.
Together with all stakeholders, we look forward to continuing to work together to provide safe, secure and affordable housing for more Australians.
4. The Joint Minister Oversight Model commenced on 1 July 2024 and establishes a consistent role for the Minister for Finance across all existing and future specialist investment vehicles (SIVs) including Housing Australia.
2023–24 highlights
- Opened first funding round of the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility and the National Housing Accord Facility programs
- Helped over 58,000 Australians buy a home sooner, including over 18,000 home buyers in regional areas
- 67% of leadership positions at Housing Australia held by women
- $876.8m Loans to CHPs approved by Housing Australia Board
- 2,400+ New and existing homes supported
- $140m Estimated interest and fee savings for CHPs3
- $221.3m Infrastructure facilities approved by Housing Australia Board
3. The total interest savings amount reported is a projection calculated at the time of approval and may vary to the final savings realised by the borrower.
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Correction: Footnote 12 on page 31 of the 2023-24 Annual Report should read: Deployed refers to NHIF social and affordable housing (SAH) and critical infrastructure (CI) committed amounts, including capacity building grants disbursed and less amounts repaid.
Case studies
‘Family and friends have been extremely impressed with my new home.’
Mary* has lived in the Brighton area all her life, raising three children in the region. However, escalating costs of a private rental put her housing security at risk when she retired as an aged care nurse. Mary was unable to afford to continue renting in the community that had been her home for so long.
‘Home ownership means independence and stepping into the next part of our lives.’
Twin brothers Andrew and Zac were among the first home buyers to take advantage of the expanded eligibility criteria under the Australian Government’s Home Guarantee Scheme to realise their aspirations of home ownership. The 22-year-old brothers, who work in logistics, obtained a loan through Great Southern Bank to purchase a three-bedroom townhouse in Wollert in Melbourne’s north.
‘By collaborating with Housing Australia, we are able to make a real and meaningful impact on housing availability on the ground where it matters.'
Housing Australia provided a $3 million NHIF grant to the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation (KYAC) to build culturally appropriate independent living for Aboriginal Elders in South Australia. Kaurna Yerta believe this to be the first purpose-built Elders Village in Australia and say it will promote independent living in a community setting.