{"id":628718,"date":"2026-04-24T22:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/628718\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T22:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:16:09","slug":"victorian-government-commits-initial-860m-for-7000-extra-social-housing-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/628718\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian government commits initial $860m for 7,000 extra social housing properties"},"content":{"rendered":"

An extra 7,000 social housing properties will be built in Victoria in the coming decade, with an initial $860 million investment in the upcoming state budget, the Allan government has announced.<\/p>\n

More than 56,000 households are on a housing waiting list in Victoria, with even those deemed a priority facing average delays of 17 months, according to the most recent publicly available data.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Jaclyn Symes said the May state budget would include an extra $860 million for the Social Housing Growth Fund<\/a>, established in 2018 to pay community housing organisations to build and operate more properties.<\/p>\n

“This will deliver even more social homes sooner, giving people in need a secure foundation,” Ms Symes said.<\/p>\n

More funding is expected beyond the forward estimates to meet the 7,000-home target.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Sarah Toohey has welcomed the announcement but says more housing is needed. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Community Housing Industry Association chief executive Sarah Toohey said extra funding would be necessary in coming years to deliver the commitment, and that the government should be building thousands more a year to catch up with other states and territories.<\/p>\n

Last year Infrastructure Victoria recommended the government commit to building 4,000 new homes a year for 15 years to make up the difference, saying social housing made up just 2.8 per cent of homes in Victoria compared to 4 per cent nationally.<\/p>\n

“But you have to start somewhere,” Ms Toohey said, welcoming the announcement as a significant investment.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to build 7,000 homes that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.<\/p>\n

“We’ll work with the government to ensure they can invest more and build more to meet the needs of the community.”<\/p>\n

The government established the fund in 2018 with a $1 billion promise to add thousands of homes.<\/p>\n

Ninety homes in St Albans and 73 in Bendigo are among the completed projects, though the government was unable to immediately confirm the total number that have been constructed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Public housing towers across Melbourne, including this one in Albert Park, will be razed. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

The Victorian Labor government has weathered criticism for its focus on community housing over public housing, which is owned and run by the government.<\/p>\n

The most vulnerable people tend to live in public housing, given community providers have the flexibility to choose their own tenants.<\/p>\n

All 44 public towers in Melbourne will separately be razed and rebuilt by 2051, to increase the number of tenants from 10,000 to 30,000 across the estates.<\/p>\n

However, the number of social tenants will only increase by 1,000, with the majority to be private and market rate housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An extra 7,000 social housing properties will be built in Victoria in the coming decade, with an initial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,304736,7688,63010,1788,304735,7691,304734,660],"class_list":["post-628718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-community-housing-industry-association","tag-housing","tag-jaclyn-symes","tag-labor","tag-may-state-budget","tag-social-housing","tag-social-housing-growth-fund","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}