Queensland social housing vacancies surge as 44,000 wait for a home

HouGarden Australia, 25 September — In the 12 months to June 2025, social housing properties in Queensland were vacant for an average of 42.7 days, up from 25.1 days over the same 12-month period to June 2024, according to figures released by the Queensland government in response to a question on notice. Both figures are 12-month rolling averages.

On a point-in-time basis, 342 homes were recorded as vacant in June 2025, compared with 173 in the month prior and 312 in June 2024. These monthly snapshots measure a different thing from the annual averages and the two sets of figures cannot be directly compared.

Social housing in the Australian context encompasses both public housing — properties managed directly by government — and community housing, which is managed by non-profit organisations. The Queensland government manages approximately 56,000 public housing properties across the state.

The public housing vacancy rate stood at 0.6 per cent in July 2025. Housing Minister Sam O'Connor, an LNP member in the government led by Premier David Crisafulli, cited this figure in his question-on-notice response and argued it compared favourably with the private rental market vacancy rate of one per cent.

Minister O'Connor said factors such as repairs, modifications, contractor availability and material supply delays can influence how long a property remains unoccupied. 'While a property is undergoing work, the department commences a process to identify and engage with prospective tenants on the social housing register,' he said.

The Department of Housing and Public Works added that tenants in social homes were staying longer on average — around 11 years — which it said affected turnover rates.

Maiy Azize, national spokesperson for Everybody's Home — a coalition of welfare and homelessness organisations focused on the housing crisis — said the vacancy figures were 'shocking'. 'Every day that people spend waiting [and] can't move into one of these homes is a day where they're at greater risk of homelessness,' she said.

Ms Azize said the situation was especially serious for people already sleeping rough and for women needing to leave unsafe relationships. 'If they aren't homeless already, if they're sleeping rough on the street, it's another night where they're in very real danger,' she said. 'And if it's a woman who's waiting for accommodation so that she can leave an unsafe relationship, that's another day that she's in very real danger.'

Ms Azize also rejected the minister's comparison between public and private vacancy rates. 'These people [on the social housing waiting list] they're actually in danger — they're in really severe rental stress,' she said. 'It's actually not the job of the private sector to house those people. It's the government's job to house those people. So it's really not okay to be finding excuses for why you can't house them.'

Fiona Caniglia, chief executive of Q Shelter, a Queensland-based non-profit organisation that advocates on housing and homelessness, said she wanted to see vacancy rates return to 2025 levels. 'Overall, it is really important that we're always trying to drive the number of days that properties are empty down,' she said.

Ms Caniglia also pointed to the financial consequences of empty properties for community housing providers. 'Every night somebody isn't living in that home, they're not collecting rent and the rents are what pay for insurance rates, repairs … every aspect of their business is paid for by those rents,' she said. 'So it can actually have this wider impact for community housing providers if we don't reduce the number of days that properties are empty.'

Housing was one of four central policy pledges the LNP took to the last Queensland state election. Minister O'Connor has not committed to a target for reducing the public housing waitlist, which currently stands at more than 44,000 people.