Understanding Barriers and Pathways for the Sustainable Implementation of Affordable Housing in Australia: The Case of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS)

Australia’s housing affordability crisis has deepened despite extensive policy intervention, with the private rental sector experiencing unprecedented pressure. This study proposes that affordable housing should guarantee low and moderate-income households their fundamental right to access secure and safe dwellings, enabling these households to meet essential needs and maintain quality of life without enduring housing stress. Despite significant public investment, a critical housing shortage persists across the nation with a need to build 640,000 homes annually. This crisis is exacerbated by ineffective public–private–community partnerships (PPCP) and the absence of a unified national housing policy. This study critically examines the NRAS to understand why market-based interventions have consistently fallen short of addressing housing affordability challenges. Through empirical analysis of 31 in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders across public, private and community sectors, this research identifies five systemic barriers: definitional inconsistencies in affordable housing policy; inflexible strategic frameworks; misaligned investment incentives; geographical inequities in resource allocation; and fragmented governance structures. The study introduces the Personal and Collective Will in Policy Implementation (PaCWiPI) framework as an innovative approach integrating Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs with Henderson’s Poverty Line metrics. Our findings demonstrate that effective housing policy requires a fundamental shift from rigid, standardised approaches towards adaptive frameworks that are responsive to diverse market conditions. This research advances housing policy scholarship by providing empirical evidence of implementation barriers while offering practical recommendations for future initiatives, relevant to the current Housing Australia Future Fund and other regionally-related housing policies.