“The federal government’s Housing Accord is in complete and total disarray, as mass migration continues to steamroll Australians who are trying to get into the property market, while housing construction is at a virtual standstill,” said Dr Kevin You, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Today, new Building Approvals data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the month of January 2026 reveals the following.
- The number of housing approvals granted in January 2026 was 14,564.
- Between December 2025 and January 2026, approvals declined by 7.2 per cent. This was the second consecutive month of declining approval numbers.
- January’s housing approval number was 5,436 fewer than the minimum monthly target of 20,000 homes needed to meet the National Housing Accord’s objective of building 1.2 million new well-located homes by June 2029.
- Only 302,319 housing units have been approved since the start of the Accord in July 2024, which represents a cumulative shortfall of 77,681 housing units from the National Housing Accord’s overall target to date.
Chart 1: Monthly dwelling approvals vs National Housing Accord minimum monthly target
“The mismatch between supply and demand in the housing market isn’t simply theoretical. Young Australians feel it in the long lines at rental inspections, when they get rejected for a home loan, when they get outbid at an auction, and when they get notice of a rent increase.”
As reported in News.com.au yesterday, the latest PropTrack data show that the price of the typical (median) home in Australia’s capital cities has exceeded $1 million for the first time this year. The mean average price, which incorporates statistical outliers, exceeded $1 million in the December quarter of 2024.
Chart 2: Cumulative housing approval shortfall from the National Housing Accord
“The National Housing Accord has never once reached its minimum monthly target. Even under the most
generous set of criteria, the Accord has been a dismal failure,” said Dr You.
To download the IPA’s research, click here.
