The Tasmanian Government today announced that it will build 1,000 more affordable homes and release 200 plots of land for affordable housing over the next four years, starting now.

At today's launch of the Tasmanian Affordable Housing Construction Program Report 2012, the Minister for Human Services Cassy O'Connor said the 1,404 new, energy-efficient and attractive homes already built marked the largest affordable housing construction program in two generations.

"These 1,000 extra affordable homes and 200 affordable housing plots will be on top of the 1,400 affordable homes for Tasmanians in need which we have built since 2009," she said.

Ms O'Connor said that more than $200 million has been invested from a range of Commonwealth and Tasmanian funding sources, improving the lives of countless Tasmanians.

"More than 1,400 Tasmanian households now have accommodation that is good quality, warm, cost effective to live in and nice to look at," Ms O'Connor said. 

"The positive impact a new home has on someone's life is profound and the homes we are building are contributing to better, more connected communities as well.

"We will continue to provide more energy-efficient properties with solar hot water systems, better heating, cooling and lighting, and water storage to help tenants save money by cutting their energy use and helping reduce carbon dioxide emissions too.

"As well as this construction programme, there's also Better Housing Futures, an initiative where about 4,000 public housing properties state-wide will be managed by community housing organisations."

Stage one will transfer the management of public housing tenancies in Clarendon Vale and Rokeby.

"Tenants can choose whether to remain a Housing Tasmania tenant or become the tenant of one of the community housing organisations. The bottom line is that these organisations will be able to provide more services, including maintenance and property upgrades, than Housing Tasmania currently can.

"So while Housing Tasmania will remain the landowner, community housing organisations will be able to be much better landlords.

"We are seeing a sea-change in affordable housing in this state and there's more to come. The best thing about it is that it puts low-income Tasmanians and their needs first," said Ms O'Connor.

The Tasmanian Affordable Housing Construction Program Report 2012 can be found at http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/tahc_report_2012