2026-06-10
The Victorian Greens say Labor’s so-called “affordable housing” system is broken and that if the Allan Labor Government is serious about making housing affordable it should cap rents and build more public housing.
It comes as the Allan Labor Government announced changes to its Affordable Housing Rental Scheme, including lowering rent thresholds and extending lease lengths only in government operated homes.
However, this only affects one affordable housing program and the Greens say it does nothing to force developers to adopt genuinely affordable definition of “affordable” or address the broader problem that much of Victoria’s so-called “affordable housing” is still not genuinely affordable.
Across Victoria, developers and housing providers are delivering affordable housing through a range of different schemes, using different definitions of affordability and different methods of setting rent. In many cases, rents are not linked to what people actually earn, but instead to varying definitions of “market rent”.
The Greens say that without a clear statewide definition for both government and private developments , affordable housing has become a catch-all label that can be applied to housing that remains unaffordable for many Victorian renters.
In 2024, the parliamentary inquiry into rental and housing affordability recommended the Victorian Government legislate a clear and consistent definition of affordable housing to be adopted across all government departments, policies and agreements with the private sector.
Nearly two years later, Labor has failed to implement the recommendation.
The Greens say the lack of a clear definition has created loopholes that allow private developers and housing providers to access government grants, taxpayer subsidies and public land while continuing to charge rents that many Victorians cannot afford.
The party says that if Labor genuinely wants to make housing affordable, it must stop outsourcing affordability to the private market, cap rents and invest in a major expansion of public housing, where rents are linked to income and people have genuine housing security.
Quotes attributable to Victorian Greens Housing spokesperson Gabrielle de Vietri:
“Victoria’s affordable housing system is broken. Labor can’t tell Victorians exactly what affordable housing even means because there is no consistent definition.”
“So-called affordable housing has become a catch-all label that sounds good in a press release, but when developers put these homes on the market they don’t pass the pub test of what most people would actually consider affordable.”
“The only genuinely affordable homes are public homes, where all rents are linked to income rather than whatever version of market rent a developer decides to use.”
“If Labor was serious about making housing affordable, they would cap rents, build public housing and stop relying on profit-driven developers to deliver affordability.”