Australia’s fragmented and slow planning systems remain the biggest obstacle to meeting the National Housing Accord’s target of 1.2 million new homes over five years, according to the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) Planning Blueprint Scorecard – 2026 Update.
The scorecard, released in late April, assessed planning reform progress across all states and territories, finding that no jurisdiction scored higher than three out of five. Housing completions in 2024–25 fell almost 67,000 dwellings short of the annual target, meaning Australia must now deliver about 260,000 new homes per year to stay on track.
New South Wales emerged as the most ambitious reformer, introducing state-led rezonings, expanded complying development pathways, pre-endorsed design pattern books, and a development coordination authority. Western Australia and South Australia recorded the highest overall planning scores, combining streamlined approval frameworks with consistent design codes and major land release programs.
Victoria showed early momentum through deemed-to-comply standards for townhouses and low-rise housing, though the HIA warned that additional taxes and charges risk undermining the commercial viability of new projects.
Queensland again recorded one of the lowest scores. The HIA cited a lack of standardisation across 77 local government planning schemes as a continuing source of cost and delay. Tasmania and the Northern Territory were also flagged for weak strategic planning frameworks and slow approvals.
The scorecard identified overlapping rules, subjective decision-making, and inconsistent local interpretations as the primary causes of delay, not a lack of resources. In some jurisdictions, HIA members reported waiting six to nine months for planning approval on a simple house or granny flat.
The HIA argued that faster decisions do not mean lower standards but instead require clearer rules and broader use of code-based assessment pathways.
Up to 80% of residential land in some capital cities remains locked into low-density zoning, the HIA said, severely constraining supply in well-located urban areas.
The association called on the Commonwealth to support states and territories with digital planning portals, land supply dashboards, and AI-assisted assessment technologies to accelerate housing delivery nationally.
“The housing crisis will not be solved by targets alone,” the scorecard stated. “It will be solved when planning systems shift from being gatekeepers to enablers of supply.”
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council’s State of the Housing System 2025 report found that housing affordability continued to deteriorate in 2024, with the median-income household needing to spend 50% of their income to service the average new mortgage, and the share of homes affordable to that household falling to its lowest level on record.
The same report projected that 938,000 dwellings would be completed during the Housing Accord period, falling short of the 1.2 million target, with scenario analysis indicating that even under optimistic economic scenarios, the target would not be achieved.
