The Albanese Government is working to boost the construction of rental housing as part of its broad and ambitious plan to build more homes in Australia.
We are releasing draft legislation today to introduce tax incentives to encourage investment and construction in the build‑to‑rent sector.
Build‑to‑rent developments are specifically designed to be rented out rather than sold to individual buyers. It’s a model that has been used successfully overseas to increase housing supply.
Attracting more investment into housing will support our ambitious national effort to build 1.2 million new, well‑located homes over five years from 1 July 2024. Industry estimates that changes to promote build‑to‑rent investment will make an important contribution to achieving this national target and could see an extra 150,000 rental homes built over the next decade.
This is all about more homes for home buyers, more homes for renters and more homes for Australians who are doing it tough.
For a long time, we haven’t been building the homes that Australia needs and the former government wasted nearly a decade in office while these problems only got worse.
The Albanese Government has committed more than $25 billion in new housing investments over the next decade and will continue to work closely with all levels of government to ensure more Australians have a safe, secure and affordable place to call home.
We have a plan to kickstart the construction of more homes, to attract more institutional investment, to cut red tape and planning hurdles, to help more Australians into home ownership, to support renters, and to help those who need a safe home the most.
The tax incentives apply to build‑to‑rent projects, consisting of 50 or more apartments or dwellings, made available for rent to the general public.
The dwellings must be retained under single ownership for at least 15 years and a minimum 10 per cent of dwellings in a development need to be made available as affordable tenancies.
The incentives apply to eligible new projects that commenced construction after the policy’s announcement in last year’s Budget (7:30 pm AEST on 9 May 2023).
The new legislation will operate separately from state and territory initiatives designed to support the build‑to‑rent sector.
We welcome further feedback on the draft legislation before 22 April 2024. The draft legislation and related materials are available on the Treasury website.