Every month, Australia’s housing shortage worsens

Tuesday 4 November 2025

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released housing approvals data for September, which recorded 16,360 trend approvals, a 0.9% increase from August.

It was the strongest trend monthly approvals since February 2022. Even so, approvals in September were 3,640 (18%) behind the National Housing Accord’s five-year target of building 20,000 homes per month.

In the year to September, 192,214 homes were approved for construction, which was 47,786 (20%) fewer than the National Housing Accord’s target of building 240,000 homes each year.

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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.