How does affordable housing work in Victoria – and how much more do we need?

As inflation and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis puts pressure on renters around the country, more and more Australians are looking for affordable housing options.

There are currently over 100,000 Australians living in government regulated affordable housing homes. These residencies often have subsidised rents and stricter rules than your average rental.

In Victoria there are over 26,000 affordable housing units run by not-for-profit housing agencies.

So how do these properties work, and what criteria do renters need to meet to apply for one?

What is affordable housing? Affordable housing is a type of rental available for Australians who don’t meet the requirements for social housing, but are still struggling to pay their rent on a low-income.

• Affordable housing can be operated by private or not-for-profit housing agencies.

• These agencies can receive government funding to help address housing shortages.

• Affordable housing is an umbrella term that refers to a number of different state government programs.

• The goal of affordable housing is to provide rentals at below market rent to those who are struggling to afford average rents.

What’s “affordable”? For a property to be considered affordable housing, rents must be set at least 10 percent below the area’s median market rent. 

• These rental prices are also not able to increase by more than 5 percent a year.

How is affordable housing different from social housing? Social housing is owned and operated by state governments, whereas affordable housing is operated by private or not-for-profit companies and regulated by the state government.

How do you qualify for affordable housing? There’s a number of criteria that need to be met in order to qualify for affordable housing. 

Things like:

• The total household income has to fall within income limits.

  • For individuals in regional Victoria this is between $22,501 and $54,010.

  • For couples in regional Victoria this is $33,751 to $81,020.

  • For a family in regional Victoria this is $47,251 to $113,430 .

• The advertised rent for the property is not more than 30 percent of the household's gross income.

• No one in the household can own a property.

What’s a Gippsland example?

The new 51-unit social and affordable housing development in Warragul is owned and operated by the not-for-profit Housing Choices Australia.

• Housing Choices Australia is a not-for-profit registered housing agency.

Gippsland Homelessness Network co-ordinator, Chris McNamara, told the Monitor there’s a desperate need for social and affordable housing in Gippsland.

• There were 7,520 people in Gippsland on the social and affordable priority waitlist as of March 2025, according to the Gippsland Homelessness Network.

In 2024, the Victorian government announced that 175 social and affordable homes would be built across Gippsland as part of the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund.