The federal government’s $10 billion flagship Housing Australia Future Fund is choking on the volume of projects it took on in its first tender and needs an overhaul so building starts faster, developers and community housing providers say.

The HAFF, as the fund is known, was set up in late 2023 as the first national project in decades with the aim of developing 40,000 new affordable rental homes for key workers and social housing units for low-income Australians.