The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) is an Australian Government initiative to stimulate the supply of new affordable rental dwellings.

The Scheme offers annual incentives for ten years (indexed annually to the rental component of the CPI).

The two key elements of the incentive are:

The Incentive is provided annually for ten years and is indexed based upon the rental component of the CPI index. The most recent increase was 0.6% .

Incentives are provided on the condition that throughout the ten-year period the dwelling is rented at least 20 per cent below the market rate to eligible low and moderate income households.

The Department of Social Services (Australia) is responsible for the implementation and ongoing management of NRAS, in consultation with the Australian Taxation Office.

In addition to this, many State and Local Governments have provided generous planning incentives where NRAS approved dwellings are to be built.

Currently, housing affordability is a problem in Australia. For society to function people need to live affordably in or around areas where they work. Key workers such as nurses, teachers, police officers, fire fighters, ambulance operators and other members of society need to be able to access housing which is affordable. This generally means that they do not spend more than 30% of their household income on rent.

The incentive is available to nearly all dwelling types such as houses, apartments, villas, flats and town houses.