Sussan Ley wrong on Labor's housing construction numbers
By Matthew Elmas in Sydney
WHAT WAS CLAIMED : Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered only 17 homes.
OUR VERDICT : False. Albanese government funding has supported the construction of more than 2000 homes so far.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is falsely claiming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered only 17 homes since Labor came to power.
Federal funding has actually supported the construction of more than 2400 homes under Labor, according to data obtained from federal and state governments.
Several hundred of these homes have been built since July 2024, when a federal economy-wide target to build 1.2 million homes over five years kicked off.
Ms Ley made the false claim during her first question to Mr Albanese in parliament as opposition leader.
"The prime minister promised to deliver 1.2 million homes, but he has let down young Australians by delivering just 17," Ms Ley told parliament on July 23, 2025.
"With leaked Treasury advice confirming this is a broken promise, will the prime minister abandon his failing policies and work constructively with the coalition to address Labor's housing crisis?"
The 1.2 million target comes from the National Housing Accord and refers to construction across the economy - including the private sector - not just government-supported builds.
The referenced advice was contained in Treasury's incoming government brief, of which the table of contents was released erroneously in July 2025.
This revealed a government target for the building of 1.2 million new homes between 2024/25 and 2029/30 would "not be met".
When asked for evidence that the government has delivered just 17 homes, Ms Ley's office pointed AAP FactCheck to a Daily Mail article from June 2025. The article reports on a TikTok video uploaded to Housing Minister Clare O'Neil's social media accounts, in which she spruiks the delivery of 17 new properties in Canberra.
"The Housing Australia Future Fund has only built 17 properties. These are in Canberra," Ms Ley's office said.
Public data, however, reveals more than 2400 homes have been built since Labor came to power in May 2022.
As AAP FactCheck has previously investigated, data from state governments in March 2025 showed at least 119 new homes had been built under the Social Housing Accelerator (SHA) program nationally.
Labor established the program in 2023 with $2 billion in federal government funding.
Updated data from state governments obtained by AAP FactCheck in August 2025 shows that figure is now at least 230 - not including Western Australia and South Australia, which either didn't respond to inquiries or failed to provide reliable data for analysis.
Other federal government programs have supported new housing construction, too.
The Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator, set up by the coalition and expanded by Labor in 2024, has supported the construction of 2100 homes since 2022/23, according to Housing Australia data.
This includes 192 houses built in the 2024/25 financial year after the period covered by the economy-wide National Housing Accord's 1.2-million target.
The Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), a $10 billion public investment vehicle that spends its returns on housing, has also supported the construction of properties. The fund passed parliament in late 2023 and, to date, has supported 584 projects completed with HAFF funding, according to Housing Australia.
The HAFF does support housing projects that began construction before receiving funding under the scheme - it's unclear how many of the 584 houses this applies to.
Experts have previously told AAP FactCheck that because the HAFF is focused on high-density developments rather than freestanding housing, it's reasonable it would take a few years to move projects from initial construction to completion.
Ms Ley's claim the Canberra homes were also supported under the HAFF is incorrect, too. They were built under the SHA.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
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