Public Housing

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:04): There's a line that goes with that sir, but I won't. It's unparliamentary. My question is to the minister for Housing. What is the current number of vacant public housing homes?

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Housing Infrastructure, Minister for Planning) (15:05): I will get an update for the member because I want to give an accurate figure. We have been working very closely with the new executive of the Housing Trust and have put in place a program to absolutely limit the number of vacant homes that are lettable.

Regretfully, there are two types of vacant homes. Some are vacant that are lettable and, obviously, you will always have something of a vacancy rate in the system. It is a large system, with some 33,000 properties, and there will always be some vacancy rate as people move in and out of properties. There is another category of housing where homes are frankly unlettable, they need either major maintenance or demolition because they are at the end of their useful life.

I will get a figure for the honourable member, but this government's commitment is to add more money into the maintenance contracts and limit the number of vacant lettable homes because we know there is a lot of demand both for public housing and for community housing, and more generally a very tight rental market.

It is that tight private rental market which, of course, has been the focus for the government's rent-to-buy initiative. The rent-to-buy initiative is solely focused on long-term renters who have some capacity to get into home ownership but who are constantly defeated by this endless cycle of saving for a deposit and then seeing a house price rise. The government wants to make sure those people can tap into HomeStart, shared equity loans and the government's rent-to-buy scheme.