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That's according to analysts and property developers who say our housing situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

Rick Graf is a Development Director with Billbergia, which builds housing and the community infrastructure around it.

He says there's nowhere near enough housing in Australia to meet demand, and experts agree that more housing supply is needed to make buying and renting property more affordable.

"We're building about 165,000 to 175,000 new homes a year," AMP Deputy Chief Economist Diana Mousina says.

"Based on our current levels of demand, which is ultimately driven by our population growth, we should be building about 240,000 to 250,000 homes a year.

"That would be more in line with the government's housing accord policy ... so we are well off those numbers."

The government's set up a target of 1.2 million homes over 5 years to help meet ever-growing demand, and has also put in place practical policies to help achieve this goal including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.

But an independent report from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council forecasts Australia will miss this target unless the government fulfils all of its housing promises.

As a result, Council chair Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz warns of worsening conditions across the housing system for years to come.

"So currently we're looking at a shortfall of new demand of 40,000," she says.

"Of course that does not go to address the undersupply that's already in the system."

Economist Diana Mousina says this means renters and first home buyers are going to need to dig even further into their pockets to afford housing.

"Over the past year rents are running at about 8% year on year ... so that's very high ... and I think that pace of growth is probably likely to continue in 2024," she says.

"Our base case scenario is for 5 per cent growth in [property] prices and the risk is to the upside."

So what, if anything, on top of what's being done, can be achieved to make housing more affordable?

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government has already committed more than $25 billion to new housing initiatives in the upcoming budget.

But property developer Rick Graf, who has provided testimony for a number of senate committees on housing in Canberra, says the focus for now should be squarely on how to speed up the planning process at the state level.

"We still have, in NSW, the slowest panning system in the nation — one of the slowest in the world," he says.

"Incrementally playing business as usual isn't going to bring us the dramatic change in housing supply that we actually need."