Australias migration intake will exceed 400,000 as the population surges under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albaneses government will not meet its target to reign in immigration amid a housing crisis, with more than 400,000 new arrivals in Australia in the last financial year.

The government in last years May budget forecast the number of foreigners moving to the country would drop to 315,000 in the 12 months to June under new measures it introduced - though this was revised to 375,000 in December and 395,000 earlier this year.

However, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released Thursday confirmed in just the first nine months of the financial year there were 388,000 new arrivals in the country, not counting the remaining four months.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said the influx of new residents to the country vying for accommodation was why the price of housing remained at record highs.

This is why Australians cant afford to buy a home, its why the rents have gone through the roof and its why we find ourselves in a position that we do today with people living without secure accommodation, Dutton said.

Minister for Home Affairs Murray Watt said migration had slowed under the governments measures, and the data from the remaining four months of the financial year would show it had reduced further.

We recognise that we need to make sure that the numbers of migrants that we have coming to Australia is sustainable, and thats exactly why weve taken a range of actions to bring that number down, he said.

Were starting to see the results of that. The numbers that came out today are actually from March, theyre a little bit lagging. And of course, a number of the measures that weve taken took effect after March, so I would expect that wed see that number fall further.

The Albanese government said it would reduce Australias migrant intake to 395,000 but new data from the ABS shows new arrivals will top 400,000 for the last financial year

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said the influx of immigrants was why housing was unaffordable in Australia

Immigration reached a record of 528,000 new people flooding into the country in 2022-23 after travel resumed following the Covid pandemic.

The government said this was a catch-up effect as immigration plunged during the two years of international border closures. 

Since then it has steadily declined but not at the rate the government had hoped as the country continues to rely on international students and foreign workers to pump up the economy.

Chair of the governments National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz argued plans to let in 53,000 fewer foreign students from 2025 would not make houses easier to access.

The federal government in August announced it would set a cap of 270,000 international students as a bid to reduce migration and ease pressure on the housing sector.

But in an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said the cap would not solve the issue.

Its really hard for us to see how capping international student numbers could make very much of a dent at all on the housing system, she said.

It would seem to be fairly damaging to our second-biggest export industry and probably has very little effect on freeing up housing.

The government is moving to cap the number of international students being accepted into universities but one top official said this would not make much of a difference to house prices

Universities would be able to increase the number of foreign pupils they can take in, but only if they increase student housing.

Its estimated university students make up just four per cent of renters in Australia.

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said while there might be other reasons for why the number of university students coming from overseas would need to be limited, housing was not one of them.

It is not the case that international students are crowding out renters in our cities, thats just simply not true, she said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said foreign student numbers needed to be reduced.

We have seen record numbers of international students ... we will wait and see what the governments measures actually lead to, he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

According to the latest ABS figures there were 509,750 migrants to the country in the 12 months to March.

NSW received 168,148 of those, 151,740 went to Victoria, 82,794 to Queensland and 64,902 to WA.