Social, community and affordable housing in Queensland: who qualifies

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A renter who is stretched by a private lease hears three phrases used as if they meant the same thing: public housing, community housing, affordable housing. They do not. Each has its own landlord, its own income test and its own way of setting rent, and a household that is far over the limit for one can sit comfortably inside the limit for another.

The gap between them is wide. On the Queensland Government's eligibility page, last updated on 24 September 2026, a single person can apply for social housing only with a gross income of $609 a week or less. Under the Department of Housing and Public Works policy that took effect on 12 September 2026, the same person can be considered for an affordable housing tenancy on up to $80,000 a year. This guide sets out what each term means, the tests for each, how an application travels, how rent is worked out and reviewed, and the help that exists for people who stay in the private market.

Queensland Government eligibility page, updated 24 September 2026, and the department's Social Housing Policy 2026, effective 12 September 2026.

Three terms, three different things

Social housing is the umbrella. It covers two kinds of landlord. Public housing, in the words of the Queensland Government's guide to applying, is long-term social housing managed by the Queensland Government itself. Community housing is delivered by non-government organisations, local governments and community organisations. Both, the same page says, are for eligible people in need who cannot access other housing.

Affordable housing is a separate setting. It is rented below the market rate rather than as a share of a very low income, and it is aimed higher up the income scale. The department's Social Housing Policy 2026, written for funded community housing providers, describes its income settings as targeted to very low to moderate income households. The policy says affordable rent settings apply only where a provider's funding agreement allows them.

The landlords in the community sector are regulated. The Queensland Government's business site, on a page updated on 28 September 2026, says a community housing provider that wants to deliver funded social housing in the State must be registered under the National Regulatory System for Community Housing, and that community housing assets are funded under the Housing Act 2003. The national system's own website, on a page updated on 3 September 2025, lists six participating jurisdictions: Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Victoria and Western Australia are outside it.

One application covers the first two rows. The Queensland Government's community housing pages say there is one application process for both community housing and public housing, and one register behind it.

The seven tests for social housing

The eligibility page lists seven requirements, and an applicant must meet all of them.

1. Living in Queensland. The main applicant must live in the State. The page allows exceptions for border areas and for people moving from interstate with a definite need to be in Queensland.
2. Citizenship or residency. The main applicant must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or hold one of the listed visas. A person whose permanent residency is pending can apply, but will not be considered for an offer until it is resolved.
3. No property. Nobody on the application may own or part-own property in Australia or overseas. That includes vacant land and property held in a trust. Exceptions may apply for domestic and family violence, marriage breakdown, extreme hardship, or vacant land in a natural disaster area.
4. Liquid assets under the limit. The household's combined liquid assets must not exceed $116,375 for a single person or $148,625 for two or more people.
5. Wellbeing. The current housing situation must be affecting the household's wellbeing, measured by a set of factors described below.
6. Household income under the limit. Total gross weekly assessable income must sit within the limit for the household type.
7. An independent income. At least one person who will sign the tenancy agreement must have an assessable income of more than $332.10 a week, received for at least four weeks before applying.

The seventh test surprises people. Social housing still charges rent, so the department wants at least one signatory with a regular income of their own. Applicants must also prove their identity. For a home in a remote or discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, the page adds that the applicant must identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or have permission from the council or trustee.

Income and asset limits by household

The income test is a ladder with five rungs. The figures below are the weekly gross limits printed on the eligibility page as updated on 24 September 2026.

The pattern is easy to read once it is laid out. The second person in a household adds $146 a week to the limit, the difference between $609 and $755. Each person after that adds $122, and the ladder stops at $1,121 however large the household is.

Multiplied by 52, the single limit of $609 a week comes to $31,668 a year, and the top rung of $1,121 comes to $58,292. The limits are gross, so they are compared with income before tax, and they count the whole household's assessable income, not only the main applicant's.

The asset limit is a combined figure for everyone on the application, and the guide asks for bank and superannuation statements as evidence.

What need means: the wellbeing test

Being poor enough is not sufficient. The fifth test asks whether the household actually needs to move and cannot solve the problem in the private market, and the eligibility page breaks it into three parts.

The household needs at least one reason to move. The examples on the page are homelessness, domestic and family violence, a home in an unsuitable location, a home without the features the household needs, and unaffordable rent. The application guide indicates what unaffordable means in practice: one accepted form of evidence is proof that rent takes 30 per cent or more of income.

The household then needs at least two complex wellbeing needs that are not about money. The page gives a serious long-term medical condition or disability, recent homelessness or eviction, repeated unsuccessful rental applications, and a child at risk of harm as examples.

Finally the household needs one financial need, such as 12 months or more of unemployment, or employment at an income inside the limits.

Applying and the housing register

The application is made on a form. The Queensland Government's page on how to apply, updated on 18 September 2026, describes no online lodgement: it sets out a form called the Application for housing assistance, available as a PDF or a Word document, which is signed in front of an approved witness or at a Housing Service Centre.

The evidence list is long, and missing items delay the assessment. Identity needs two original, unexpired documents, at least one of them a primary document such as a birth certificate, driver licence or passport. Centrelink income is confirmed through a consent form returned to the Housing Service Centre. Wages need an employer's declaration, and health or disability needs a medical report or a support statement. No evidence is asked for where safety is the issue.

The housing register is defined on the Queensland Government's page about what happens after applying as a record of eligible applications for public and community housing. An application is active if the household can accept an offer and inactive if it cannot for the moment. The place of an application depends on five things: the level of need, the preferred locations, the type of home, the number of bedrooms the household is entitled to, and the date of the eligible application. People with more urgent and complex needs are offered housing ahead of others, so the register does not work as a simple queue.

Staying on the register carries duties. Changes to address, name, income, assets, household members, health or preferred areas must be reported within 28 days. A household going away for more than 28 days is asked to say so. An application can be removed if the department cannot make contact or receives no reply within the time it gives, and eligibility is checked again while the household waits and before any offer. The same page notes that knowingly giving false or misleading information that may influence an eligibility decision is an offence under the Housing Act 2003. Section 17 of the Act, on false or misleading information, sets a maximum penalty of 10 penalty units. A household found ineligible receives a letter explaining the decision and its right to ask for a review.

How rent is set in social housing

Social housing rent is tied to the tenant's income, not to the home. In public housing the rate is 25 per cent of the household's total assessable income, according to the Queensland Government's page on how rent is calculated, updated on 6 July 2026. The ministerial statement of 9 June 2025 that announced the return of annual rent reviews gives the same rate.

For community housing the Social Housing Policy 2026 gives the full formula. Rent for general social housing can be no more than 25 per cent of assessable household income plus 100 per cent of the household's Commonwealth Rent Assistance entitlement, or the market rent, whichever is lower. Commonwealth Rent Assistance is a federal payment, and under this formula a provider may add the whole of the household's entitlement on top of the quarter of income.

A worked example, with illustrative figures: a single tenant with an assessable income of $600 a week would be charged no more than $150 a week before any rent assistance is added, because 25 per cent of $600 is $150. The market rent of the home enters the sum only as a ceiling, for the rare case where the income-based figure would be higher.

The policy sets other limits on providers. Market rent is the ceiling and must be valued by an independent professional every four years. Service charges of up to $10 a week may be added. Rent must be reviewed at least once a year, and a change in the household can trigger a review sooner.

Reviews every year: rent and continued eligibility

A social housing tenancy is no longer a place that is granted once and never looked at again. According to the ministerial statement of 9 June 2025, 45 per cent of social housing tenants had gone more than five years without a rent or eligibility assessment, and annual reviews were to be phased back in from 1 July 2025.

The Queensland Government's page on tenancy and rent reviews, updated on 1 October 2026, explains what a review covers: the household's income, the number of bedrooms it is entitled to, and whether it still qualifies. Where the review produces a higher rent, the increase is capped at $15 a week each year for two years, and the tenant has four weeks' notice before paying it. A lower rent applies immediately.

The test for staying is different from the test for getting in. A household is no longer eligible if the combined gross assessable income of the tenants and their partners is more than $80,000 a year, or if anyone in the household owns or part-owns property in Australia or overseas. The page on ongoing eligibility adds that a household that does not supply the information requested is treated as over the limit. A household found ineligible has a four-month exit period, may ask for a review during it, and can apply again later if its circumstances change.

Community housing follows the same line. The Social Housing Policy 2026 requires providers to review each tenancy at least annually and applies the same $80,000 ceiling for the tenant and spouse.

Affordable housing: who it is for and who allocates it

Affordable housing has no wellbeing test and no requirement for an independent income. Under the Social Housing Policy 2026 an applicant must meet the common criteria of Queensland residency, citizenship or permanent residency, and no property ownership, then fall inside an annual income limit and a liquid asset limit.

The yearly gross household income limits in the policy are:

• one adult: $80,000
• two adults, or a sole parent with one child: $103,145
• a sole parent with two children, or a couple with one child: $126,066
• three adults: $129,887
• a sole parent with three children: $148,987
• a couple with two children: $148,988

Income is measured over the 12 months before the tenancy starts. Liquid assets may reach $185,000 for a single person and $220,000 for a household of two or more, limits the policy says are set to let households build savings toward home ownership. The income thresholds are indexed each year, at 2.5 per cent from 1 July 2025 until 30 June 2030.

Rent is set differently. A provider may charge up to 30 per cent of gross household income plus Commonwealth Rent Assistance, or 74.9 per cent of market rent, whichever is lower. On a home with a market rent of $600 a week, to take an illustrative figure, the second ceiling is $449.40. A provider must not offer a dwelling where the affordable rent would be unsuitable for the applicant.

The provider allocates these homes, in a fixed order of priority: first eligible applicants on the housing register, then tenants leaving public or general social housing because their income has passed the limit, then people referred by government and non-government agencies including homelessness services, and last people found in the private market. A private renter with no file at the department is therefore not excluded, but comes fourth. Once housed, a household stops being eligible only if its income exceeds the limit by 25 per cent for two financial years in a row.

Help that keeps a renter in the private market

A renter whose income is above the social housing ladder is not left without options. The Queensland Government's list of housing assistance options, updated on 17 June 2026, sets out a group of products for private tenants, with far higher income limits.

The best known is the bond loan: an interest-free, fee-free loan of up to four weeks' rent to cover a rental bond. Bond Loan Plus adds two weeks' rent, for up to six weeks in all. A Bridging Bond Loan covers a new bond while the old one is being released. The Rental Grant is a one-off payment of two weeks' rent that is not repaid, reserved for people in housing crisis: those escaping violence, homeless or at risk of it, leaving a community-based rent scheme, or leaving a shelter, hospital, correctional facility or child protection service after a stay of at least 28 days.

The eligibility page for these products, updated on 24 June 2026, sets the income limit at $1,428 a week for one adult and $2,142 for two adults, rising to $2,998 for two adults with two dependants. Applicants must have combined cash or savings under $5,500, must not own a home, and the rent on the new place cannot exceed 60 per cent of their combined gross weekly income.

RentConnect is the service behind the counter. The Queensland Government's page on it, updated on 29 June 2026, describes help for people struggling to secure a rental home because of barriers that are not financial: a thin rental history, little knowledge of the private market, or missing documents. Officers help with searching, applications and dealing with agents, and this side of the service has no income assessment. It is available at every Housing Service Centre.

Two further products appear on the same list. The Rental Security Subsidy pays part of the rent directly to the property owner or manager for a tenant in temporary financial trouble, for up to two years, or up to four years for a tenant aged 25 or under. Helping Hand Headlease is for people who can afford a private rental but cannot get an application approved.

Where to check a figure

Every limit in this guide is indexed or reviewed, and several changed in the weeks before publication. The independent income figure is an example: the department's policy dated 12 September 2026 prints $325.28 a week, and the eligibility page updated twelve days later prints $332.10. The page with the later date is the one to rely on.

For social housing, the figures sit on the Queensland Government's page on eligibility for public and community housing, which carries a last-updated date. Bond loan and rental grant limits are on the bond loan eligibility page. The rules that bind community housing providers, including the affordable housing limits, are in the Social Housing Policy 2026 published by the Department of Housing and Public Works.

A Housing Service Centre can assess a household's own position, and the application pages give the general government line, 13 QGOV, as the number to call about housing products and services. An individual assessment matters here more than in most areas: the wellbeing test and the exceptions on property ownership both turn on the facts of one household.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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