Affordable housing is housing that is deemed affordable to those with a median household income as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. A general rule is no more than 30% of gross monthly income should be spent on housing, to be considered affordable as the challenges of promoting affordable housing varies by location.

Australia Australians in receipt of many social security benefits from Centrelink who rent housing from a private landlord are eligible for rent assistance, a subsidy paid directly to the tenant in addition to the basic Centrelink benefit, such as the Age Pension or the Disability Pension. The amount of rent assistance paid depends on the amount of rent payable, whether the tenant has dependents, and how many dependents there are. Tenants who live in public housing in Australia are not eligible for rent assistance.

Australians buying a home for the first time are eligible for a first homeowner grant. These grants were introduced on 1 July 2000, and are jointly funded by the Commonwealth government and the state and territory governments. First home buyers are currently eligible for a grant of A$7000 to alleviate the costs of entering the housing market.

The Commonwealth government in 2008 introduced first home saver accounts, whereby those saving for a new home are eligible for government contributions to their savings account, subject to conditions.

Western Australia Department of Housing Affordable Homes Scheme

The long-term goal of the department is to deliver at least 20,000 more affordable homes by 2020 for low to moderate income earners, through the Opening Doors Scheme. Opening Doors offers two ways for Western Australians to own their own homes.

Shared Home Ownership

The Shared Home Ownership is the only scheme of its kind in Australia. This scheme is similar to one which was set by the Housing Authority in Malta (Europe). Western Australians can purchase their own home with help from the Department of Housing with a SharedStart loan through Keystart, the Government's lending provider.

With shared ownership, the initial cost of buying a home is reduced, as the department retains up to 30% of the property. The department's share depends on your borrowing capacity, household size, and the location and type of property. In the future, the buyer may have the option to purchase the full amount or sell the home back to the department. With a ShareStart loan, citizens can purchase newly built homes and off-the–plan properties offered by the Department of Housing.

Affordable House Sales

The Department of Housing (the Housing Authority), through the Housing Authority, now offers Affordable House Sales to the general public. Properties are available to anyone interested in purchasing a home. The department works closely with industry to ensure that properties being developed for sale are affordable for those on low-to-moderate incomes.

Austria

In Vienna, Austria, social housing may be completely government built and run or include a mixture of public land and private-sector construction and management. Combined, the two types of housing represent about 46 percent of the city's housing stock (26% government owned and managed and 20% a public/private partnership) and house people with a wide variety of incomes. These social housing units are often linked to businesses, services, and transit amenities. Justin Kadi, a researcher at the University of Technology in Vienna, states that the social housing units also drives down rents in the private market because the city is the biggest landlord. The city continually adds units to the already large existing housing stock to ensure housing availability.

Canada

In Canada affordability is one of three factors, along with adequacy and suitability, used to determine core housing needs. Canada ranks among the lowest of the most developed countries for housing affordability.

Since the 1980s the federal government has played a smaller and smaller role in funding affordable and social housing. It has devolved responsibilities to provinces, some of whom have in turn devolved responsibilities to municipalities. In 1995 the federal government ended funding for the development of affordable housing.

Ontario In 2002, the Social Housing Services Corporation (SHSC) was created by the Province of Ontario to provide group services for social housing providers (public, non-profit and co-op housing) following the downloading of responsibility for over 270,000 social housing units to local municipalities. It is a non-profit corporation governed by a board of municipal, non-profit and co-op housing representatives. Its mandate is to provide Ontario housing providers and service managers with bulk purchasing, insurance, investment and information services.

With an annual budget of $4.5 million, SHSC and its two subsidiaries, SOHO and SHSC Financial Inc. offers a dedicated insurance program for social housing providers, bulk gas purchasing and an energy efficiency retrofit program that coordinates energy audits, expertise, funding, bulk purchasing of energy-efficient goods, training and education, and data evaluation. SHSC manages and provides investment advice to housing providers on capital reserves valued at more than $390 million. Working closely with other housing sector organizations and non-governmental organizations, SHSC also supports and develops independent housing-related research, including a new Housing Internship program for graduate-level researchers.

In 1998 the Ontario government eliminated rent control in the hopes of increasing housing supply by stimulating investment. The following years saw the construction of only 8.5% of the promised new development. This period also saw the rise of condo development and the fall of rental development. In 2018, Doug Ford's conservative government eliminated rent control on all new buildings, additions to buildings, and basement apartments, that are occupied for the first time for residential purposes after November 15, 2018. From October 2018 to October 2023 average rent in Ontario has increased 34%.

Alberta Alberta has remained generally affordable, with the City of Calgary, as of 2016, the majority of households in Calgary, 78%, were able to meet their housing needs in the marketplace. As of 2024, Calgary Housing Company, the affordable housing provider in Calgary noted that they managed housing for almost 10,000 households – about 27,000 Calgarians, including 15,000 children.

British Columbia There has been a move toward the integration of affordable social housing with market housing and other uses, such as the 2006–10 redevelopment of the Woodward's building site in Vancouver.

Legislation to help make home ownership accessible to middle-class families, and other measures aimed to make sure that British Columbians can continue to live, work and raise families in British Columbia such as increasing rental property supply was passed and will take effect on August 2, 2016.

China China is also experiencing a gap between housing prices and affordability as it moves away from an in-kind welfare benefits system to a market-oriented allocation system (Hui et al. 2007). Most urban housing prior to 1978 in the planned-economy era consisted of nearly free dwellings produced and allocated by the unsustainable single-channel state-funded system. The goal of China's housing reform started in 1978 was to gradually transform housing from a "free good" to a "subsidized good" and eventually to a "commodity", the price of which reflects true production costs and a market profit margin. In 1998 China accelerated its urban housing reform further moving away from an in-kind welfare benefits system to a market-oriented allocation system, with the state reducing its role in housing provision. The reform is followed by increasing home ownership, housing consumption, real estate investment, as well as skyrocketing housing prices.

High housing prices are a major issue in a number of big cities in China. Starting in 2005, the high housing appreciation rate became a serious affordability problem for middle and low-income families: in 2004 the housing appreciation rate of 17.8%, almost twice the income growth rate of 10% (NBSC 2011). Municipal governments have responded to the calling for increased housing supply to middle and low-income families through a number of policies and housing programs, among which are the Affordable Housing Program and the Housing Provident Fund Program.

The Affordable Housing Program (commonly known as the "Economical and Comfortable Housing Program, or 经济适用房) is designed to provide affordable housing to middle- to low-income households to encourage home ownership. In 1998 the Department of Construction and Ministry of Finance jointly promulgated "The Method of Urban Affordable Housing Construction Managing," marked the start of the program. Aimed at middle- to low-income households (annual income less than 30,000 to 70,000 RMB according to the size of the household and the specific area), this public housing program provides housing (usually 60–110 square meters) at affordable price (usually 50–70% market price).

Within the policies and mandates set by the central government, local governments are responsible for the operation of the program. Local governments usually appropriate state-owned land to real estate developers, who are responsible for the finance and construction of affordable housing. The profit for real estate developers is controlled to be less than 3%, so as to keep the price of housing at the affordable level. Individuals need to apply for the affordable housing through household and income investigation.

The program is controversial in recent years because of insufficient construction, poor administration, and widespread corruption. Local government has limited incentive to provide affordable housing, as it means lower revenue from land-transferring fees and lower local GDP. As a result, the funding of the program has been decreasing ever since its inception, and the affordable housing construction rate dropped from 15.6% (1997) to 5.2% (2008). Because of the limited supply of affordable housing and excessive housing demand from the middle- to low-income populations, affordable housing units are usually sold at high market price. In many cities, ineligible high-income households own affordable housing units whereas many qualified families are denied access.

Housing Provident Fund (HPF) Program is another policy effort to provide affordable housing. China introduced the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) program nationwide in 1995. It is similar to housing fund programs in other countries such as Thailand and Singapore. HPF provides a mechanism allowing potential purchasers who have an income to save for and eventually purchase a unit dwelling (which may be a formerly public housing unit). The HPF includes a subsidized savings program linked to a retirement account, subsidized mortgage rates and price discounts for housing purchases.

Denmark

In Denmark, affordable housing constitutes around 20% of the housing stock, with approximately 560,000 affordable housing homes accommodating nearly 1 million people out of a total population of 5.8 million. The Danish government has taken steps to support the development and renovation of affordable housing to address climate impacts and promote a circular economy. In 2020, the government allocated EUR 5.5 billion for 'Green renovations' and the construction of new affordable housing, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050.