Anglicare Tasmania Rental Affordability Snapshot 2023: State’s rental crisis laid bare

Tasmania’s rental affordability woes have gone from bad to worse, an alarming new report released today by Anglicare Tasmania reveals.

Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania

Rental affordability continues to decline in Tasmania, despite a 41 per cent increase in the total number of properties advertised across the state, a damning new report has found.

Anglicare Tasmania’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot for 2023 analysed all the properties listed for rent on the island on a weekend in March, determining that the number of available rentals had increased from 773 in last year’s report to 1037 this year.

However, the snapshot showed that rents were rising 10 times faster than income support payments, against a backdrop of ballooning interest rates and acute cost of living pressures.

“The snapshot reveals a widening gap between the rents being charged and the amount that people on low incomes can afford,” Anglicare Social Action and Research Centre co-ordinator Mary Bennett said.

“It also highlights a range of other barriers. For example, sharehouses were advertised but are not suitable for all people. It’s also not appropriate to move to a remote area where people won’t have access to employment or family supports.”

The report sought to identify how many available rentals could be considered affordable and appropriate for 14 different types of low-income households.

For a rental property to be classified as affordable, it must cost no more than 30 per cent of household income, Ms Bennett said.

The snapshot found there were no affordable properties available at all for four of the 14 household types, including those on Youth Allowance and JobSeeker. It also found that a single parent with two children could afford less than 1 per cent of three-bedroom rentals, even if they were working full-time on the minimum wage.

Anglicare Tasmania is calling on the state government to develop a “transparent” investment framework that responds to the market so as to ensure ongoing affordable housing supply.

Originally published as Anglicare Tasmania Rental Affordability Snapshot 2023: State’s rental crisis laid bare