NARO Response to State of the Housing System 2025

The National Association of Renters’ Organisations welcomes the release of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council’s second State of the Housing System report. Meeting the recommendations of this report should drive the work of the Housing Minister Claire O’Neill and the new envoy for social housing and homelessness, Josh Burns. We congratulate them both on their re-election and appointments and look forward to their efforts ahead.

We particularly welcome the recognition of the need to improve the renting experience across Australia. Before the election, we published our report card on the Better Deal for Renters which highlighted the progress in some states in some areas, but also the inconsistent practices across the country. The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council has endorsed the need to implement the Better Deal for Renters in full across the country. 

We also recognise that the Better Deal for Renters does not address all the concerns renters are facing, with more detail needed on some principles to ensure consistent application across the country, and other areas not yet addressed particularly in relation to affordability and protecting against unreasonable rent increases. We recognise that there are many current international and domestic practices that are fair and evidenced to sit comfortably alongside efforts to increase supply of housing. We call for serious consideration of their implementation.

We also note the Council’s call for a commitment to significantly increase the availability of genuinely affordable housing. We have been calling for investment to ensure 10% of all housing in Australia is public or community housing by 2036 which is supported by a large body of research detailing the unmet need of housing that is affordable for households with the lowest 40% of incomes - the target group for public and community housing. We note that this report can begin to build government policy towards meeting this target.

We also note the Council’s recognition that:

- A 2.5% vacancy rate indicates a balanced market. However we note we must exceed, not simply meet, this balanced level over time for current market dynamics to resolve towards improved rental outcomes. Locking in the current system should not be the aim.

- Income support payments can play an important role in relieving financial stress, but note that the amount and eligibility of these payments are limited and do not reach many people who need that support.

- We need to reform the tax system in relation to housing, but note that the tax system should not only support home ownership, but a well functioning rental system with policies to better use existing payments to drive improvements to rented homes quality and management.

We continue to support federal, state and local efforts to improve the housing system and encourage government to ensure renters are represented in discussions alongside other stakeholders, particularly housing providers, at the federal level. This should be done by funding the peak body representing renters - the National Association of Renters’ Organisations.