Crisis as Melbourne rental rates rise and vacancy rates drop to six-year low
MELBOURNE is facing its biggest shortage of rental properties since 2012, pushing prices up and forcing low-income earners out of suburbs they could once afford to live in.
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MELBOURNE is facing its biggest shortage of rental properties since 2012, pushing prices up and forcing low-income earners out of suburbs they could once afford to live in.
The Department of Health and Human Services rent report shows available rental properties in Melbourne dropped to a near six-year low of 1.9 per cent during the quarter to March 2018.
And Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said low-income renters were increasingly overlooked in favour of higher income earners, which was forcing thousands of people out of the private rental market.
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“More and more renters on low-incomes are coming to our services saying they’re being overlooked by real estate agents or out-bid by higher income earners,” Ms Smith said.
“Others find themselves stuck in a poverty trap, paying exorbitant rent, but with no option to move somewhere cheaper,” she said.
“This is yet further evidence of our broken housing system.”
In the March quarter just 4.5 per cent of all rentals in metropolitan Melbourne were deemed affordable — not paying more than 30 per cent of one’s income on rent — to a low income earner.
The median rent increased to $420 per week, compared with $400 per week in March last year.
When it came to one-bedroom rentals, only 0.5 per cent of properties in Melbourne were considered affordable.
There were no affordable one-bedroom properties in areas including Banyule, Bayside, Darebin, Greater Dandenong, Hume, Kingston, Manningham, Moonee Valley, Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Ranges.
The City of Melbourne was the only metropolitan area to record more than three affordable single-bedroom residences.
A parliamentary inquiry this month revealed there were 82,000 Victorians, nearly 25,000 of them children, waiting for social housing.
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