For the first time in two generations, housing may have determined the outcome of a federal election.

Multiple political parties argued they were best placed to provide a solution to the housing crisis, including the Greens who presented themselves as the political voice of renters and the generation of young people locked out of home ownership.

The emphatic election victory provides Labor with the opportunity to implement some of the bigger and more ambitious housing plans from its first term, however challenging these may be.

And there can be no doubt there are challenges aplenty.

Three years is a very short time frame to turn around the nation’s housing system – to build a construction workforce, release land, build homes, and get families into them.

Labor has the advantage of being able to build on its initiatives of its first term, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it takes 15-20 years to develop land, some 12 to 18 months to build a house, and roughly three years to build an apartment.

Time isn’t the friend of governments seeking to rapidly boost the supply of affordable housing.

Over the past three years, Labor has initiated a broad spectrum of policies to address the nation’s housing problems. Many of these initiatives are promising but are yet to hit their stride.

This has included the roll out of the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund with a goal of building 30,000 affordable homes within five years, boosting the nation’s capacity to forecast housing demand, and introducing a Help to Buy Scheme that provides government loans for lower income households, of up to 30 per cent of the purchase price for existing homes, and 40 per cent for households purchasing a new build.

The 2025 election campaign saw Labor double down on its current policy settings, while also adding to its commitments.

The Albanese Government has promised to allocate $10 billion to help build 100,000 properties reserved for those buying their first home, while also opening up the first home buyers guarantee scheme to all first-time purchasers, allowing them to secure a home with only a 5 per cent deposit and avoid mortgage insurance.

It has also committed to investing in the growth of prefabricated and modular housing, and an Advanced Entry Trades Training program to bring more skilled workers into the building sector.

Labor took an ambitious housing agenda to the 2022 election which it implemented through its first term.

These measures, however, have not yet had a measurable impact on housing affordability.

As these programs mature, we can look forward to better outcomes, increasing supply, and more opportunities for Australians confronted by housing stress.

It is also worth remembering that Labor’s much-vaunted National Housing and Homelessness Plan, developed over the last three years, and deeply researched and considered, has not yet been released.

This plan has the potential to unite efforts to promote affordable housing outcomes under the banner of a 10-year vision. It is keenly anticipated across the whole sector.

It is also clear that in its second term, the Albanese Government will need to prioritise its housing policies if it is to claim at the next election that housing affordability has been one of its successes.

Finally, it is worth reflecting on the known unknowns.  Interest rates have an enormous impact on housing affordability, and while the rate relief received earlier this year was welcome, it was a small step relative to the overall increases imposed over the past five years.

And we simply don’t know where interest rates will head in the future.

The on-again, off-again prospect of a global economic downturn associated with a tariff war may well result in an easing of interest rates over the coming years, but the Australian labour market remains close to full employment and last week’s inflation figures suggest the Reserve Bank will continue to remain cautious when considering further movements in interest rates.

The Parliamentary cross bench is a second unknown.

Labor’s housing platform was much less ambitious, and more homeownership focussed, than that of the Greens who advocated for a winding back of negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts for landlords with more than one investment property, freezing rents and establishing a national tenants protection agency.

The Greens also proposed the creation of a federal development agency to compete with private developers, to affordably build housing for sale and rental.

The Independents will all have other housing priorities, each shaped by their own values, the circumstances of their electorates and the initiatives put before them.

They may exert a significant influence on how the government’s housing programs are implemented, something that was clearly seen with the first Albanese Government

Whatever happens, there will be a strong expectation that a second-term Labor government make a greater dent on housing unaffordability than they did in their first term.

One can be sure that the Labor government will be judged heavily on their second-term housing policy success in their bid to secure re-election in 2028.

After all, the health and wellbeing of our economy and our citizens is dependent on housing that is affordable for all.

Professor Andrew Beer is Executive Dean of UniSA Business, Prof Rachel Ong ViforJ is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow at Curtin University and Professor Emma Baker is a  a Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide.