A social housing project funded under the Housing Australia Future Fund

The Commonwealth funding layer sits on top of the entire ordinary development chain, and adds a competitive round to the front of it. Under 4 per cent of the 40,000 home target had been delivered by May 2026.

housingA community housing provider delivering a social and affordable housing development with Commonwealth support skeleton compare across jurisdictions

This is a structural skeleton, not a measured process. The steps, the authorities and the sequence are researched from this jurisdiction's published requirements and are broadly right. The durations are a uniform template applied across all jurisdictions, so the differences between them on the comparison page are mostly an artefact of that template rather than evidence about Australia. Do not quote the day counts. Replacing them with sourced figures for even one jurisdiction would make this page genuinely useful.

2090 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

9 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

7% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

300 days saved by concurrency
vs. 2390 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

applicant	1072d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
assessment	761d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
scheduling	137d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.
third party	120d	Waiting on an external body outside the regulator's control.

137 of 2090 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A community housing provider seeks Commonwealth funding to deliver new social and affordable homes.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Hold community housing provider registration at the required tier registration Registration under the national system, or under the separate Victorian or Western Australian systems.	National Regulatory System for Community Housing	assessment	—	270 estimate	—
2	Secure a site and develop a scheme application Land acquisition or a state land transfer, feasibility, and design to a level that can be costed and bid. after Hold community housing provider registration at the required tier 1455d slack	—	applicant	—	365 estimate	—
3	Wait for a funding round to open registration Applications are accepted in competitive rounds rather than continuously. after Secure a site and develop a scheme 1318d slack	Housing Australia	scheduling	—	137 published	—
4	Prepare and lodge the funding application application after Wait for a funding round to open 1251d slack	Housing Australia	applicant	—	67 published	—
5	Assessment and contracting assessment Assessment of the proposal and negotiation of the funding agreement. after Prepare and lodge the funding application 880d slack	Housing Australia	assessment	—	371 published	—
6	Development approval decision The ordinary planning consent process, unchanged by the presence of Commonwealth funding. after Secure a site and develop a scheme 1155d slack	Consent authority (NSW council)	assessment	—	300 estimate	Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW)
7	Financial close decision Debt, equity and Commonwealth support brought together against a costed, consented scheme. after Assessment and contracting, Development approval 760d slack	—	third party	—	120 estimate	—
8	Construction application after Financial close 120d slack	—	applicant	—	640 estimate	—
9	Completion, certification and tenanting certification after Construction	—	assessment	—	120 estimate	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

Finish the national community housing register remove ~120d
A national registration scheme for community housing providers that Victoria and Western Australia are not in — while the Commonwealth funds providers to operate across exactly those borders.
Settle the governance before opening the funding round, not two years after resequence
Housing Australia Future Fund applications opened in January 2024. Treasury did not finalise most delivery and oversight arrangements until May 2026. This is the counter-case to almost everything else on this site: a step that happened too early.

Sources

ANAO performance audit of the Housing Australia Future Fund, July 2026: applications opened January 2024, most governance and oversight arrangements not finalised until May 2026
Reported delivery of 1,432 homes against a 40,000 target as at May 2026, comprising 762 newly constructed and 670 purchased
NRSCH, published registration categories and tier criteria
Auditor-General Report No.3 2026-27, Department of the Treasury's Design and Delivery of the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord Facility, Australian National Audit Office, https://www.anao.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-07/Auditor-General_Report_2026-27_3.pdf, accessed 2026-11-09

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-haff-project.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.