Uncertainty surrounds the future of national housing scheme

NSW planning Rose Jackson has used a key housing summit to query the Federal Government over the uncertain outlook for the Housing Australia Future Fund.

The $10 billion fund, set up in 2023, aims at improving housing outcomes for Australians and has a target of delivering 40,000 new social and affordable homes nationwide by 2029.

Established with the needs of Indigenous communities, women, children and veterans in mind, the fund has drawn criticism for slow rollout, high build costs and delays.

On Thursday at the NSW Property Council Housing Summit, Jackson said she was “not sure what the future of HAFF looks like”.

“We have had rounds two and three, not that round three is finalised, but that is in the works, so I think in a way that we’ve done good work, we’ve been in a good position, we’ve put forward projects from the states, from our community housing partners,” she said.

“The question really isn’t what we are doing in the future, the question is what is the future of HAFF? Are there going to be additional rounds, are there going to be more opportunities?”

She added NSW would embrace more opportunities, but that the fund’s outlook was unclear.

“We would obviously hope that there are and we need to be ready with those strong partnerships and those projects to go,” she said, adding that “at the moment there’s not a lot of clarity about what the future of that program looks like”.

“Rounds two and three have been positive so I guess it would be a shame if that were the end of future HAFF rounds – so it’d be good to see more of that.”

HAFF, a centrepiece of Labor’s 2022 election pitch, started in late 2023 after a long battle with the Greens. The fund has completed around 1000 homes with more than 9000 currently under construction around the country.

Amid the uncertainty, Jackson told the event the NSW Government was working to give the property sector “stability” and “solutions to the problems that we face”.

“In an environment where the problems that were outlined are so real and so visceral and so human, the solutions genuinely complex, one of the key things that government can bring to that challenging environment is stability and certainty,” she said.

“I feel as though we have a decent track record of reform.”