Australia’s intractable housing shortage

Thursday 17 July 2025

The latest batch of housing construction data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that the Albanese government’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years is nowhere close to being met.

First, in the year to May 2025, only 182,900 dwellings were approved for construction, 57,100 (24%) below the 240,000 required to meet the target.

The quarterly dwelling commencements and completions data from the ABS, released on Wednesday, paints a similar picture.

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

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.