Australia's housing targets remain under serious doubt despite a modest increase in dwelling completions, with this weeks ABS Building Activity data showing completions rose 5.8% over the quarter to June 2026, driven by stronger apartment, townhouse and terrace delivery.
Property Council's Matthew Kandelaars said significant headwinds remain, warning that tax changes, weakening industry confidence and competition for labour are putting the 1.2 million home Housing Accord target further out of reach.
"Australia still has a long way to go if we're serious about meeting our housing targets," said Kandelaars.
"The housing challenge isn't about whether the numbers move up or down in a single quarter.
"It's whether we're improving over a sustained period and meeting our Housing Accord targets of 1.2 million homes."
Seasonally adjusted ABS data showed dwelling completions rose 5.8 per cent over the quarter to June 2026, driven by a lift in apartments, townhouses and terraces, while completions for detached houses only lifted 1.4 per cent.
"If we're going to close the housing gap, we need to see growth in completions for all types of housing, including single family detached dwellings,"said Kandelaars.
ABS data also showed that while completions for apartments, townhouses and other multi-unit and attached residential buildings had lifted over the past year, seasonally adjusted, the delivery of detached houses was going backwards.
"Australia simply cannot meet its housing ambitions on the current trajectory and policy headwinds," said Kandelaars.
"This data is effectively looking in the rear-view mirror.
"The full impact of policy chaos, diabolical tax proposals and weakening industry confidence is coming, with the tax changes passing the parliament in late June and the ban on SMSF borrowing for property investment starting 10 August.
"In September, our latest industry sentiment survey found confidence has fallen to its lowest level since the pandemic.
"That's not a signal governments can ignore."
Kandelaars said governments should be focused on improving investment conditions rather than creating additional barriers to housing delivery.
"The nation has set ambitious housing targets, yet too many policy decisions are making them harder to achieve," said Kandelaars.
"Housing construction is competing for workers with major infrastructure projects, the energy transition and a rapidly expanding data centre sector.
"You cannot increase housing supply while simultaneously making investment harder and stretching the workforce needed to build it.
"If governments want more homes, they need more projects to stack up.
"That's the challenge these figures should focus attention on."
