Under the proposal, the Australian Government would act as a public property developer, building homes and selling them at close to cost, or retaining them to rent out as public or affordable housing.

• 70% of the homes built by the public developer would be available to rent:
  • Rent would be capped at 25% of the national average household income
  • A quota of 20% of homes available to rent would be allocated to the lowest income quintile.
• 30% of the homes built by the public developer per year to be sold to owner-occupiers at 5% over the cost of procurement, only eligible to those with no interest in real estate:
  • Properties can only be resold back to the government at the cost price + CPI

State and territory and local taxes such as stamp duty or land tax, would be waived.

The profile of dwellings is detached housing 20%, townhouses 20%, medium density/low rise 50% and high rise 10%. The locations of dwellings is per the share of needed growth reported in Table 11 of Social housing as infrastructure: an investment pathway by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (the AHURI report). 

Delivery of homes by the public developer would be 360,000 homes over the five years from 1 July 2024, and then 50,000 homes per year for the following five years, with market construction costs for each home.

The public property developer would operate under a new Commonwealth Department of Sustainable Cities, Development and Housing.

The request also sought additional information related to the proposal:

• A comparison between the average cost of a home purchased from the government property developer, and the average cost of a home purchased on the private market; the benefit to those who are able to purchase a home from the public developer; and the number of people who would benefit.
• A comparison between the rental rate charged by someone renting from the public developer, and the relevant private market rental costs.
• The geographic impact of the policy, by state and territory.
• Distributional impacts across the population.

The proposal is ongoing and would be in effect from 1 July 2024.