Working families are in “rental housing stress” on northern beaches
PARENTS on the peninsula can’t afford to buy their first home — and now they’re being priced out of the skyrocketing rental market.
Manly
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WORKING families are in “housing stress” and cannot afford to rent on the northern beaches.
According to the latest Rental Affordability Index (RAI), parents are being priced out of the skyrocketing rental market, let alone being able to afford their own home.
The average peninsula household spends about half of its gross income on rent, dragging them into “housing stress” which occurs when households spend 30 per cent or more of income on rent.
Northern beaches suburbs which have reached critical levels include Manly, where 72 per cent of household income is spent on rent (placing it in the category of “severely unaffordable”), Harbord and Fairlight 61 per cent, and Balgowlah and Seaforth, both 57 per cent.
Other suburbs which rank poorly for affordability are Narrabeen 52 per cent, Dee Why, Brookvale, Warriewood and Mona Vale 49 per cent, Newport 48 per cent, Avalon 47 per cent and Collaroy 46 per cent.
The figures show that working families — not just low income households — are being priced out of the metropolitan rental market.
“Rental affordability in Sydney is at a record low,” said RAI lead researcher, Ellen Witte from SGS Economics and Planning.
“A fulltime teacher who is a single parent would be paying 43 to 55 per cent of the family’s income on rent in greater Sydney.
“You do start to wonder who will be your child’s teacher or who will work in our hospitals or cafes because they can’t afford to live on the northern beaches.”
On top of rent, families also have to pay for food, healthcare, transport, childcare and education — and sometimes they do not have sufficient funds, said Ms Witte.
She said this dire situation effectively pushed people out of the metropolitan rental market, forcing them to move to an unknown area where jobs could be limited.
“Families are struggling to make ends meet and this leads to impacts on mental health,” Ms Witte said.
“The situation for pensioners is even worse — a single pensioner renting a one-bedroom unit anywhere in Sydney needs to pay 60 per cent or more of their pension on rent.
“This is especially concerning for older working women who are reaching retirement and have not been able to build up their superannuation — these people have nowhere to go.”
At the other end of the spectrum, 22-year-old Madison Bellert from Elanora Heights has qualified for affordable housing due to her income.
The office assistant pays $320 a week for a unit managed by Link Housing, which supplies affordable housing under the National Rental Affordability Scheme — this type of housing has been developed with some assistance from either the state or federal government.
The 2016-17 household income eligibility limits for affordable housing is $48,527 for one adult and $67,091 for two adults, and ranges from $67,137 for a single parent with one child to $115,379 for a couple with three children.
“I moved to Sydney from the Gold Coast three years ago with my ex-boyfriend, and even before we moved I was stressing out about how expensive it was to rent (on the northern beaches),” Miss Bellert said.
“We had been paying $260 for a Surfers Paradise studio apartment and we ended up having to pay $380 for a small one bedroom unit in Newport.”
After the relationship ended she paid $350 a week to live with a flatmate in a tiny two bedroom Dee Why unit — and then she realised that her standard of living was being affected because she was paying more than half of her wage on rent.
“I’m so grateful to have found the Link Housing accommodation because now my living conditions are better and I’m paying less than half my salary (on rent),” she said.
“Rents are overpriced in Sydney — it is getting ridiculous — and I wouldn’t be able to stay here without this type of accommodation.”
National Shelter, an advocacy group to create a more equal housing system, particularly for low income households, said the latest RAI should be a “wakeup call”.
“These figures remind us how much work governments, the community and private sectors have to do,” said National Shelter executive officer, Adrian Pisarski.
“While the federal budget introduced some welcome measures, house price inflation is locking people out of ownership and putting much greater pressure on rental markets.
“Many of these rental markets remain unaffordable and this displaces low income households into the margins (of housing stress).”
National Shelter, Community Sector Banking, and SGS Economics and Planning have released the RAI (based on Census figures and new rental agreements) on a biannual basis since 2015 as an indicator of rental affordability relative to household incomes.
Community Sector Banking’s chief executive, Andrew Cairns, also had a warning that “swift co-ordinated action” was needed to tackle housing affordability.
“Without action, Australia will become a divided country with working parents, pensioners and how income groups locked out of living in metropolitan areas.”
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