21 October 2025
The Greens have today announced their first tranche of their housing plan, seeking to massively expand public housing and introduce new laws to protect tenants and reign in spiralling rents.
Under the Greens’ plan the SA Housing Trust would become a public builder and undertake construction of 20,000 public homes over the next four years, eliminating the public housing waitlist.
The Greens are also proposing the creation of a Commissioner for Rental Tenancies to advocate on behalf of tenants and new laws to cap rent increases in line with CPI and restrict them to just once every 2 years to provide urgently needed relief for SA’s renters.
The party estimates the plan would cost approximately $6.7 billion over 4 years.
Quotes attributable to Robert Simms MLC
“We are in the midst of the worst housing crisis in generations, and we need to see the State Government playing much more of an active role in delivering the housing we need. Land releases are one thing, but actually building public housing is another. The Greens want to restore the mission of the SA Housing Trust as a public builder. Under Premier Playford, the Housing Trust built tens of thousands of public houses. Labor has made on start on building more public housing, but it’s just not at the scale we need to deal with this crisis. The Greens’ push to build 20,000 public homes over 4 years would clear the public housing waitlist and boost the supply of housing across the state. In coming months, we will outline some revenue measures that can be considered by Government to fund this investment.”
“Additionally, we want to strengthen the rights of renters. I was proud to work with the Malinuaskas Government on rental reforms back in 2024 and we delivered some important wins for renters like ending no cause evictions in SA. Unfortunately, however rent increases are still out of control and enforcing renters’ rights remains a challenge. In the new parliament, we will move to introduce new laws to establish a Commissioner for Renters to act as a cop of the beat, to ensure that renters’ rights are being enforced. We’ll also move to ban unlimited rent increases, capping increases at the rate of CPI and restricting them to once in a 24 month period. Should the Greens secure the balance of power in the Upper House next march, we will be in a strong position to push Labor to go further on housing. This will be a key focus for our Green team.”
Quotes attributable to Lead Upper House Candidate Melanie Selwood
“SA is suffering from a chronic shortage of social and affordable housing after years of underinvestment from both Labor and the Liberals. A vote for the Greens is a vote for the investment in housing that SA desperately needs."
“During this campaign, I regularly hear from renters that they are struggling just to make ends meet or find suitable rental properties. The Greens are the only party fighting to give renters the relief and protection that they deserve by finally capping rents in line with CPI and establishing a Commissioner for Rental Tenancies who will advocate for them.”