Just 700 new social and affordable homes will be built this financial year by the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, the federal government said on Monday, as industry figures said it was unclear how much money had been awarded to larger community housing providers.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and housing minister Clare O’Neil said agency Housing Australia had selected preferred tenderers for 13,700 homes to be secured in the first HAFF tender and that construction would start this financial year on “almost 40 per cent” of the total.