The federal government wants to find tens of thousands of workers to help build new homes in an attempt to address Australia's ongoing housing crisis.

Next week's budget will include nearly $90 million to cover the education costs of 20,000 people which the government hopes will boost a sector in desperate need of more staff.

It means 15,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places will be offered, with another 5,000 places in pre-apprenticeship programs provided over two years from 2025.

The announcement comes after an independent report recently cast doubt on the federal government's target of building 1.2 million homes by 2029.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said boosting the workforce was one way of ensuring the target could be met.

"We won't build the 1.2 million homes without an increase in our skilled labour force, without more builders and construction workers, and that's why we are making this investment in the budget," he said.

Australia's vacancy rate fell to a new record low in February according to Domain, and there are ongoing concerns about a lack of supply.

With less than a week to go before the budget, Mr Chalmers insisted housing would be a priority.

"It will be a major focus of the budget on Tuesday," he said.

"We know there's not enough homes, we need to build much more housing … we have made some quite big investments already and people should expect to see more on Tuesday night."

Looking overseas for help

The government also hopes to find 4,500 migrants to help fill gaps in the sector, by fast-tracking applications for those who have building and construction skills.

It includes 1,900 migrants from countries that have comparable qualifications to Australia, such as people from the UK and France.

Another 2,600 will be migrants who have construction skills that are not recognised in Australia but who will be fast-tracked by completing practical tests to be approved to work.

Skills Minister Brendan O'Connor said many of the migrants would be people already living in Australia but currently not allowed to work in the building sector.

"There are people here on visas that have skills that could work in sectors of the economy that are not being recognised," he said.

"What a waste of someone who has a skill to help build a home and all they get to do is drive an Uber … if we can find a faster way of assessing and determining people's skills that are on visas in this country, and help ensure we build our building stock, why would we not be doing that."

Other options to help people buy or rent a home

With rental prices on the rise, the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee recently recommended the government provide further rental support in the budget.

The treasurer did not rule out the idea when pressed on whether the government would increase the rental assistance payment.

"That's not something I am prepared to get into this week," he said.

"People know our bona fides here, they know we have been prepared in the past to step in and help renters, we know renters are under pressure but I am not prepared to go further than that."

He did, however, flag earlier in the week that there would be changes to welfare payments.

A number of independent senators and the Greens Party have called for housing tax reform to ensure more properties are affordable but the treasurer said that would not be included in the budget.

"There are no changes, for example, to negative gearing or those kinds of changes," Mr Chalmers said.

Will it help?

Earlier this year the construction industry said an extra 90,000 workers were needed to ensure the government's target of 1.2 million homes was met.

Mr O'Connor said Wednesday's announcement was on top of the government's more general fee-free TAFE programs currently in place that include construction workers.

"We did inherit a skills shortage across the economy and we are looking to respond to it quickly," he said.

Housing Industry Association managing director Jocelyn Martin said the announcement would help address skills shortages in the sector.

"One of the key issues in building these much-needed homes is having an adequate workforce and without this, the government will fall well short of its housing target," she said.

"It is therefore pleasing to see the budget commitment to start to address these skills shortages in our sector as well as the recognition of this as a key area of government focus going forward."

However, she urged the government to consider ongoing financial incentives for employers to take on an apprentice.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the government's announcement would reduce the barriers to growing the workforce.

"Workforce shortages remain the biggest source of cost pressure and disruption for the building and construction industry," she said.

"Despite a sizeable workforce of 1.35 million Australians, the industry has an annual exit rate of 8 per cent, and we are only replacing half of those people per year."