Scrutiny of ‘Beyond Repair’ HAFF Ramps Up

Described as “beyond repair” by the other side of politics, the next round of the $10-billion Housing Australia Future Fund will open for expressions of interest in January. Parliamentary scrutiny of the program is increasing as the property sector reaction has been best described as mixed. Opposition housing spokesperson Senator Andrew Bragg and Greens housing spokesperson Barbara Pocock, told The Urban Developer the program was unsalvageable, despite tweaks. The third round of the HAFF, announced last month, will be the final tranche of projects funded under the program that is designed to deliver 21,350 homes. Flagged by Housing Australia chief executive Scott Langford in September , the application process for projects has been simplified to enable faster commitment and delivery. Minimum portfolio sizes will be introduced to improve scale and value of commitments under the HAFF. Delivery partnerships between community housing providers (CHPs), and industry and governments, will be reworked, although CHPs will remain the sole eligible recipients for HAFF funding. Larger projects will also be sought and supported by new co-investment models with state governments, although the details of those schemes—and the other changes that the third round will introduce—have yet to be announced. Housing Australia is to conduct industry engagement this month. When considered alongside the 18,650 homes already contracted in previous rounds, the HAFF will aim to close out its mandate of 40,000 social and affordable homes by mid-2029. According to Housing Australia, 889 homes have been completed and 9501 are under construction. The largest single project among those completed, the 362-home (including 272 social and affordable) build-to-rent Swift Walk complex in Melbourne’s Kensington was opened on November 21. Conceived as a social impact joint project between HESTA, Assemble and Housing Choices Australia, the proportion of social and affordable housing in the project was increased with the support of HAFF funding in September 2024. ▲ The HAFF’s largest completion to date, Swift Walk in Melbourne’s Kensington, was opened in November 2025. Assemble chief executive Caroline Viney said that Swift Walk showed “that with the right policy settings, there is institutional investor appetite to invest in housing, including appropriately managed social and affordable housing”. “The combination of HESTA’s leadership, the Australian Government’s HAFF program, and Assemble’s innovative partnership with Housing Choices Australia mean that high-quality mixed-tenure rental homes can be delivered at scale—and in locations near public transport, jobs, and daily amenity,” Viney said. HAFF speed, value win mixed reaction The announcement comes as criticism of the HAFF has ramped up within Parliament and as an Australian National Audit Office probe is investigating the program. In response to a request from shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg in October, Commonwealth auditor-general Caralee McLiesh confirmed that a performance audit of the design and delivery of the HAFF was under way and due to be tabled in June 2026. “It is clear that the HAFF is beyond repair,” Bragg told The Urban Developer . “Unfortunately the issues with the HAFF are structural. From day one, the scheme was built around financial engineering rather than actually building homes. “Through FOI we know the major super funds were given private access to the Treasurer after the HAFF was announced. They had clear influence over the scheme’s design. Those same funds have since become the biggest winners from the first round, which tells you everything you need to know.” While the Opposition was concerned over the volume and pace of delivery, Bragg said, taxpayers were also “getting a terrible deal in this scheme”. “In some cases, the Commonwealth is paying more than $1.3 million for a single home. That is more than double the normal cost of construction and completely indefensible waste of taxpayer funds,” Bragg said. “I expect more announcements and very little delivery. Slightly changing the delivery settings won’t solve the basic problem: the HAFF is spending billions but very little of it is going into the bricks and mortar needed to build a home.” The program has come under fire from all sides of politics. The government used Greens support in the Senate to pass Bills related to planning, including striking a deal to reform the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 on November 27. But the Greens are less enamoured of the HAFF. Housing spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock told The Urban Developer that the entire model was “fundamentally flawed—it’s too complex and too slow”. “We are in the midst of a housing crisis and we need solutions now. If the government had directly intervened, it could have built a lot more housing a lot faster,” Pocock said. While the Greens are not seeking to repeal the HAFF, Pocock said that contracting social housing for 25-year tenures was “short-sighted”. “The problem with the HAFF is that building construction is dependent on the success of the sharemarket instead of stable, direct funding by the government. The government should be directly funding the building of public housing instead,” Pocock told The Urban Developer . Removing eligibility and investment mandate loopholes that allow developers to profit from HAFF funding, and tax reform to generate revenue for public housing, are also avenues to pursue, according to Pocock. “Instead of having a housing market in the hands of private developers who prioritise profits over people, we could have a system that provides secure and affordable housing for all,” Pocock said. ▲ Demand for trades from the Brisbane Olympics, and a more lucrative private residential pipeline, may pull labour away from HAFF projects, according to Housing Industry Association managing director Jocelyn Martin. Industry groups have been more supportive of the HAFF, albeit with some reservations. Housing Industry Association managing director Jocelyn Martin told The Urban Developer that her members back the program, but “the reality is that it has been progressed much slower than they probably anticipated”. “There are challenges around the volume of contractual arrangements that have needed to be set up … It’s hard enough to build a home these days, the planning and approval process can take a long time, even without those additional layers.” HIA members are also reporting “concerns around value for money as well … there are design issues, some of the social housing is potentially a little bit out of kilter with what is actually able to be delivered for the money.” But the ongoing improvements to HAFF processes have been tangible, according to Martin, and HIA is optimistic that the audit will continue to refine delivery, with the potential for extension of the program into the future. Social and affordable housing “is not a commercial product. It’s not something that people are going to be able to buy and sell … it will always need some solid financial support”, Martin said. The long waitlist for access to public housing will only grow as market rents rise out of reach of more Australians, according to Martin. HIA research into demand and shortages for construction labour also points to further tightening in coming years, with social and affordable developments likely to lose contractors to other project types.

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