The NSW government has sold off half as much public housing as it has built over the last three years, new figures show, adding to concerns that its marquee social housing supply programs will have little impact on the decade-long waitlist.

The sell-off of public housing estates, such as Millers Point and The Rocks, has been a controversial centrepiece in the government’s policy to use money from the sales to build more public housing in the city’s western suburbs.

Nearly 300 government-owned properties around Millers Point have been sold by the government. Credit:Tamara Dean

However, the policy has only financed a construction rate of two new homes for every one sold off over the three most recent financial years to 2017, according to data from the Department of Family and Community Services.

The figures, obtained by Labor under freedom of information laws, show that as 1647 new public housing homes were built over the three-year period, 795 were sold to private owners.