Older tenants to face rising rent stress
More than 135,000 private renters older than 65 are set to be in rent stress by 2031, a leading housing and homelessness advocate says.
More than 135,000 private renters older than 65 are set to be in rent stress by 2031, a leading housing and homelessness advocate says.
Yet there is little government impetus to create the 12,000 social housing units a year required across the next decade to service these older Australians, says Kate Colvin, spokeswoman for housing advocacy group Everybody’s Home.
In a speech on Friday to the Council on the Ageing national policy conference, Ms Colvin will say recent data from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute projects a 48 per cent rise by 2031 in the number of people over 65 in the rental market to 543,000.
“Current levels of rent stress among renters over 65 would tell us that 136,000 of them will be in rent stress,” she will say.
“Taking out the small amount of projected growth in new social housing properties, we have a social housing shortfall of just under 120,000 properties.
“That means the federal government would need to increase investment to build 12,000 properties a year for the next 10 years to meet demand for social housing for over-65s.”
Ms Colvin says rising house prices are squeezing older people into rental stress. “The result is there simply aren’t enough rental homes at rents people on low incomes can afford.”
More social housing is win-win, she will say.
“A $7bn investment in social housing can generate 18,000 jobs a year and drive $18bn of economic expansion.”
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