**Embargoed until 12.01am, Wednesday 23 May 2018**
There is no doubt that Tasmania’s booming economy has resulted in more people than ever choosing Tasmania as the place to live, work and raise a family.
While this is good news for the state, it has resulted in real challenges for Tasmanians on low incomes seeking to buy or rent a house, which is why we convened the housing summit in March to bring together key stakeholders to identify solutions.
We are currently progressing all the agreed outcomes from the summit with a range of short, medium and long term solutions to ensure every Tasmanian has access to housing they can afford.
We know the best solution to our housing shortage is increased supply, and we are working closely with local government and the housing and property sectors on reforms that aim to deliver more residential land to market faster.
This is in addition to our first Affordable Housing Action Plan that is providing real relief for Tasmanians in need.
So far, it has helped more than 500 new households into affordable, secure and safe homes and is on track to assist 1,600 households into affordable housing by June 2019.
The Tasmanian Government is investing a further $125 million in phase two of the Affordable Housing Action Plan which is expected to provide an additional 1500 new affordable homes for Tasmanians, and assist around 2000 households.
This is on top of other commitments we have made that will increase the number of houses in Tasmania, such as:
We know there is still plenty more work to be done, and we are getting on with the job of delivering it.
A fact sheet on our actions to address the housing issues can be found here: http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/373511/Action_on_Housing_Fact_Sheet.pdf