Tasmania’s social housing waitlist has reached 5,410 applicants, according to the latest Homes Tasmania Dashboard.
The figures show an 11.2% increase over the past 12 months, with the waitlist growing each month throughout 2025.
Labor’s shadow housing minister Meg Brown called on Housing Minister Kerry Vincent to release a KPMG report reviewing Homes Tasmania’s performance.
“People are being forced to sleep in cars, couch surf or remain stuck on years-long waitlists while this government sits on critical information about the future of social and affordable housing in Tasmania,” she said.
Greens housing spokesperson Vica Bayley said more public housing was needed.
“The public housing waitlist will just keep going up unless the Liberals build more public homes and stop Tasmanian homes being converted to Airbnb,” he said.
Vincent said Tasmania was delivering social housing faster than other states and territories.
“We’re delivering social housing at a faster rate than all other jurisdictions in Australia and we continue to invest in increasing taxpayer-funded social housing,” he said.
He confirmed the KPMG report would be publicly released once the final version was received.
Vincent said 88% of applicants on the housing register were already in secure or temporary accommodation.
The dashboard data supports this figure, though it defines “secure housing” as including people who may be unsafe at home and “temporary” as including those facing eviction or staying in shelters.
According to the dashboard, 642 people on the waitlist are currently without accommodation.
The data shows 4,597 households have been assisted toward the government’s target of 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2032.
Tasmania has recorded the highest social housing growth rate nationally since 2020, with an additional 1,547 dwellings added to the state’s stock.
Private rental vacancy rates remain below 1% across Hobart, Launceston and Burnie.
