Australia’s state and territory governments are responding to similar pressures: housing affordability and supply, demand for health and education infrastructure, cost-of-living relief, transport capacity, and energy system transition. And so it’s no surprise that state budgets released over the past weeks – most recently those of NSW and Queensland - focus heavily on these areas.
State treasuries are making significant investments in the built environment to meet these challenges. We see an opportunity to make these investments work harder by embedding stronger sustainability, resilience and circular economy outcomes more consistently across housing, schools, hospitals, transport and precinct delivery.
To help you see ways in which these budgets impact the built environment sector, we have pulled together some of the similarities and highlights, and the things we hope to see more of.
Similarities between states
- Housing supply is a common priority. Queensland, NSW, Victoria, WA, SA and the ACT all include commitments to upgrading existing and building new social, community, affordable or public housing, as well as measures to unlock private or mixed-market delivery.
- Health and education remain major infrastructure pipelines. Budgets across NSW, Victoria, WA, SA, Queensland and the ACT continue to fund new or upgraded hospitals, schools, early learning and specialist facilities.
- Cost-of-living measures are closely linked to transport and energy. Fare freezes or fare reductions appear in NSW, SA and Victoria, while support for household energy upgrades and electrification is prominent in NSW and the ACT.
- Energy transition and grid readiness are recurring themes, though with different emphases. NSW and Victoria focus strongly on renewable energy networks and energy system planning, the ACT continues household electrification and efficiency support, NSW launched the Home Energy Saver program, SA supports batteries and industrial transition, and Queensland continues investment across its energy supply chain.
- Planning, delivery productivity and innovation are emerging as shared priorities. NSW’s focus on modern methods of construction (MMC) and approval reform, SA’s fast-track funds and pattern-book approach, and Victoria’s fast-tracking measures are all aimed at accelerating delivery.
Highlights for the built environment
- Housing as infrastructure: The budgets increasingly treat housing as a core infrastructure challenge, with large-scale commitments to social housing, public housing, rent-to-own, community housing partnerships, precinct redevelopment and enabling infrastructure for new developments. This was also a key feature of the federal government’s budget handed down in May.
- Transport-oriented and well-located growth: NSW’s Transport Oriented Development program, Woollahra and Bays West commitments, Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop and Train and Tram activity centres, WA’s investment in infrastructure to open up new housing around METRONET stations show a continued shift toward housing delivery around transport hubs and walkable mixed-use centres.
- Modern methods of construction: NSW provides the clearest signal on prefabrication and modular construction, combining legal recognition, approval reform, grants, procurement guidance and a proposed innovation facility. This could become a useful model for improving speed, productivity and potentially, quality and sustainability, across the sector.
- Public sector pipeline for sustainable assets: Significant investments in schools, hospitals, venues, social housing and transport create opportunities to apply high-performance design, electrification, resilience, low-carbon materials and better operational outcomes at scale.
- It is particularly exciting to see NSW commit $9.2 billion over four years to continue delivering new and upgraded schools – many of which will be Green Star certified. WA is investing $5.5 billion in upgrading existing and building new hospitals over the next four years and is targeting Green Star for several of these projects. The ACT is committed to upgrading the Canberra Theatre Centre with a new lyric theatre targeting Green Star. SA has committed $3 million over two years to develop the business case for the New Women’s and Children's Hospital which is targeting Green Star certification, building on their legacy of Green Star healthcare facilities in the state.
- Household and community energy upgrades: NSW, the ACT, Victoria and SA include measures that support energy efficiency, electrification, batteries or household energy technologies, helping align affordability and emissions reduction.
- Major events and precinct legacy: Queensland’s 2032 Games investments create a long-term opportunity for sustainable venues, athlete villages, transport upgrades and wider precinct outcomes that can deliver benefits beyond the event itself.
What we’d love to see more of:
- Even deeper commitments to the energy transition. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency has urged the world to “electrify everything, as much as you can, electrify everything.” We know how to electrify Australia’s built environment. Achieving this at speed and scale will require significant investment from both the federal government and all state and territories. But the payoff is an Australia that is more resilient to fuel shocks, as well as the changing climate. Following the elevation of electrification as a key priority on the COP 31 agenda, a global campaign, Electrify Now, was launched by a coalition of business groups, think tanks and civil society organisations. Electrify Now aims to accelerate the rate and rollout of electrification, and fast-track a renewable, electric future.
- The focus on housing supply is critical, and we can do this more sustainably. Again, we know how to do this, but driving outcomes at speed and scale is going to take innovation, investment and governments and industry working constructively together. MMC, pattern books, building homes around mass-transit infrastructure, urban renewal and greenfield development that prioritise sustainability, liveability, resilience, and all-electric outcomes.
- Clear commitment from governments that investment in infrastructure and social infrastructure is an opportunity to prioritise high-performance design, electrification, resilience, low-carbon materials, circular outcomes and more. Government leadership and demand help drive supply chain transformation.