This year we’ve been reminded just how important home really is.

It’s why we’ll make sure more Victorians have the security and stability of a home, with our state’s – and Australia’s – biggest ever investment in public and community housing.

The Victorian Budget 2020/21 will deliver a historic $5.3 billion Big Housing Build to construct more than 12,000 new homes throughout metro and regional Victoria, as well as supporting around 10,000 jobs, per year over the next four years, to supercharge Victoria’s economic recovery through the pandemic and beyond.

This package will boost our state’s social housing supply by 10 per cent in just four years – providing a stable foundation for thousands of Victorians to build their lives.

The investment will deliver 9,300 new social housing homes – including replacing 1,100 old public housing units. This investment will help Aboriginal Victorians, pensioners, Victorians with disability, family violence victims and single parent families find their feet.

Of these new homes, 2,000 will be for Victorians living with mental illness, reflecting our commitment to mental health and fixing a broken system.

A further 2,900 new affordable and low-cost homes will be built to help low-to-moderate income earners live closer to where they work and provide options for private rental.

The program will deliver secure, modern, and affordable homes throughout Victoria – with 25 per cent of funding to be allocated to regional Victoria.

The new homes will meet 7-star energy efficiency standards, making them more comfortable during summer and winter, and saving tenants on their power bills.

The unprecedented investment will boost Victoria’s economic recovery, generating an estimated $6.7 billion in economic activity  and  supporting a peak of more than 18,000 jobs – with 10 per cent of the work on major projects to be done by apprentices, cadets and trainees.

Hundreds of new jobs will be created for women, Aboriginal Victorians, people with disability, social housing tenants and people from diverse backgrounds through social procurement targets.

A new Government agency, Homes Victoria, has been established to work across government, industry and the social housing sector to deliver this record housing growth and to manage existing public housing.

Combined with new housing from existing investments such as the Public Housing Renewal Program and Social Housing Growth Fund, construction of more than 15,800 new homes will begin over the next four years.