Latest data - house building shortfall now 86,000 dwellings

In October 2022, the Commonwealth government's federal budget introduced the National Housing Accord, setting an initial target of one million new, well-located homes to be built over five years from mid-2024.

On 16 August 2023, National Cabinet — comprising the Commonwealth, states and territories — agreed to lift that target to 1.2 million new homes over the same five-year period, running from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029. That works out to an average of 240,000 homes, or 20,000 dwellings, every month.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes monthly Building Approvals data for the total number of dwelling units approved nationally, across houses and other residential dwellings, private and public sectors combined. June 2026 data was released last week.

How many houses need to be approved?
Metric	Value
Required monthly pace	20,000
Actual monthly average approved	16,428
Average monthly shortfall	3,572
Required cumulative (24 months)	480,000
Actual cumulative approved	394,275
Cumulative shortfall	85,725 (82.1% of required pace)

Across the first 24 months of the target period — July 2024 to June 2026 — that series shows 393,193 dwellings approved, against a required 480,000 at the Accord's benchmark pace. That's a shortfall of 86,807, or approvals running at roughly 82% of the pace required to hit 1.2 million homes by June 2029.

Note - an approval is not a completed home — projects can stall, be redesigned, or lapse before construction starts. But because every new dwelling legally requires an approval before it can be built, the approvals count sets an effective ceiling: the number of homes actually completed cannot exceed the number approved, only fall short of it.