National housing campaign Everybody's Home is urging the federal government to make 2026 the year it significantly stumps up funding to plug the social housing shortfall, as an affordable housing scheme comes to an end.
The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), designed to provide affordable rentals to people earning low and middle incomes, has been winding down since 2018 and is set to end in June 2026.
The latest federal figures reveal more than 4,500 affordable homes will exit NRAS this year - the final lot of the more than 36,000 affordable homes that have phased out of the scheme over the past decade.
The NRAS rentals will take years to be replaced by the 40,000 social and affordable homes set to be built under the federal government's Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).
According to Housing Australia, as of November 2025, 889 homes under the HAFF had been completed, with a further 9,501 described as under construction.
State/territory |
NRAS allocations ceasing in 2026 |
New South Wales |
2,008 |
Victoria |
24 |
Western Australia |
1,550 |
South Australia |
2 |
Tasmania |
596 |
ACT |
361 |
Northern Territory |
50 |
Total |
4,591 |
*Number of total allocations under the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) as at January 1, 2026. Source: Department of Social Services.
Everybody's Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said: "The number of social and affordable homes the federal government plans to build in the next few years is barely replacing what's already been lost.
"Affordable rentals are vanishing faster than social housing is being built, leaving tens of thousands of households worse off.
"This year we will see another 4,500 affordable homes come offline, which means more families facing the brutal and expensive unsubsidised private rental market. This means more Australians are at risk of plunging into housing stress, homelessness and financial insecurity.
"For people living in these rentals, this isn't an abstract policy. We're hearing from people genuinely afraid they'll have nowhere to turn when the scheme ends.
"Australia already has a social housing shortfall of 640,000 homes and demand is only growing. Losing thousands more affordable rentals only further deepens the crisis.
"A key affordable rental scheme is ending, rents are rising and there's nowhere to move - 2026 must be the year the Albanese Government finally funds social housing at scale."
