Record surge in temporary visa holders puts further squeeze on housing market
The Albanese government has allowed in extra 730,000 people in Australia on temporary visas, putting further pressure on housing and rents.
NSW
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The number of people in Australia on temporary visas has risen by 730,000 since the Albanese government was elected, driven by a record surge in international students, working holiday-makers and Covid work visa holders.
Official figures show that between March last year and the end of July this year the number of people in Australia on temporary visas jumped from around 1.8 million to roughly 2.5 million — at a time when the nation’s shortage of housing has been growing.
The increase in the number of temporary visa-holders was equivalent to the population of the Gold Coast-Tweed Heads or Tasmania and the Northern Territory put together.
The jump comes as the REA’s PropTrack Market Insight Report released on Saturday showed the national rental vacancy rate recorded its largest drop in over a year in August, and the share of rental properties sitting vacant is now 54 per below where it was at the start of the pandemic.
The biggest increase in temporary visa-holders came from a jump of 418,000 in students and temporary graduates.
The next biggest shares of the total increase came from the 108,000 extra working holiday makers and the 101,000 Covid work visa holders.
The government moved to end the Covid work visa in recent weeks over fears it was being rorted.
In March, the government received a report from the former commissioner of Victoria Police Christine Nixon that warned about the abuse of student visas, saying “non-genuine providers are colluding with disreputable agents to facilitate student visas, and then funnelling students into criminal activities”.
The government has yet to respond to the Nixon Report, but records show that, since receiving it, it has granted another 31,262 international visas in the VET sector.
Opposition Immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said that while the government said it didn’t want a big Australia, its actions since coming to office suggested otherwise.
“Under Labor, record numbers of temporary visa holders, record numbers of international students, record numbers of failed asylum seekers and more people on a Covid work visa then when Covid was a pandemic,” he said.
He said “Labor’s Big Australia” was impacting on Australia’s housing crisis and rental shortage.
“We want a better Australia, not Labor’s big Australia.”
In response, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said Labor hadn’t wasted a day in “cleaning up the mess left by the Liberals over a decade of neglect of our immigration system”.
“One day the Liberals call for more migrants, the next day fewer,” he said.
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