Shocking lack of affordable rentals available to Australians

The “brutal” rental market has been exposed in an unsettling new report, which shows a huge number of Aussies are priced out of the market.

Minimum wage earners in Australia can afford just 1.6 per cent of available rentals while those on benefits have been priced out of the market completely, a shocking new report has revealed.

A single parent working full-time on the minimum wage can afford just 0.7 per cent – or 335 rental dwellings – the Anglicare report found.

Meanwhile, families with both parents in work on the minimum wage can afford 15.3 per cent of rentals. It’s a dramatic decline for working families considering just 10 years ago 30 per cent of rentals were affordable to them.

It examined data from rental listings from realestate.com.au over a single weekend and looked at whether properties were affordable for people on low incomes, which was defined by costing no more than 30 per cent of the household budget.

Rental shortages were also having a huge impact with 46,000 available rentals nationally, down a whopping 38 per cent from March 2021 when there were 74,000 properties advertised.

Available rentals were down 38 per cent compared to a year ago. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Brenton Edwards

The analysis found there were just 312 rentals available for someone on the aged pension, but the situation was even more dire for those on Centrelink benefits.

“The crisis in rental affordability has not crept up on Australians out of the blue,” the report said. “It has happened because governments have allowed it.”

There were just 51 rentals affordable for someone on the disability support pension – and that was not taking into account whether any of those properties would fit their specific needs.

Meanwhile those on Jobseeker had the option of just seven rooms that were available in share houses.

‘Housing in Australia is broken’

“After 13 years of producing the Rental Affordability Snapshot, it is clear that housing in Australia is broken,” the report said.

“The lack of affordable rentals is hurting households on low incomes across the board,” it said. “This year’s results also show how brutal the rental market is for young people on Centrelink payments.

“A person on Youth Allowance looking for a share house can afford one single room out of the tens of thousands we surveyed, putting them at the bottom of a tight market.”

People on benefits can barely afford anything across Australia. In the period studied in the report, there were just 51 available properties nationwide that someone on a disibility pension could afford. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie said the report’s findings were alarming and should be a wake-up call for politicians and candidates at next month’s federal election.

A recent PropTrack report showed that rents hit their highest levels since 2015 with Darwin recording the biggest jump in rental prices at a whopping 17.8 per cent, regional Tasmania experiencing a rise of 15.2 per cent, while regional NSW climbed 12.5 per cent.

Calls for major changes to housing policy

Anglicare has called for major housing policy changes including 500,000 new social and affordable rentals across the country as renting becomes a more permanent option for many Australians, with buying a home out of reach.

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers.

Anglicare executive director Kasy Chambers said that the picture of economic recovery, resilience and good economic management being painted by the Government and commentators is at odds with the experience of Australian households who cannot afford suitable housing.

“Rising inflation and stagnant wages are making it harder to make ends meet,” she said.

“Housing costs are the single biggest expense in the budgets of households on low incomes.

“Access to affordable housing makes an enormous difference to people’s lives. This doesn’t just help financially – it improves people’s wellbeing, their ability to participate in their community, and their education and employment opportunities,” Ms Chambers said.

“The market won’t resolve this problem on its own. We need leadership and investment from all levels of government.”