Hobart knocks Sydney off as the least affordable capital to rent

THE biannual Rental Affordability Index reveals Hobart has nosedived and hit a new low.

HOBART is now Australia’s least affordable capital city to rent a home, knocking Sydney from the top of the table and pushing average-income households towards housing stress.

The biannual Rental Affordability Index reveals Hobart has nosedived to become less affordable than Sydney as income growth fails to meet soaring rents.

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SGS Economics and Planning partner Ellen Witte said the results should be a “wake-up call” for Tasmania, while National Shelter’s Adrian Pisarski said Hobart’s result was “alarming”.

“There has been a single-minded focus on population growth, but a complete lack of vision of where this growth needs to go and how all households are going to be accommodated,” Ms Witte said.

“Renting households, many of them working families, are now paying the price.”

The average Hobart household earns $61,300 per annum, but is spending 29 per cent of that on rent.

It means the average-income household is on the verge of housing stress, with areas including Hobart, Sandy Bay, West, South and North Hobart, Kingston, Margate and Sorell now unaffordable.

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Affordability for average households also declined in Launceston and regional southern towns.

The Tenant’s Union of Tasmania’s Ben Bartl said the revelations must be met with decisive state government action, such as regulating short-stay accommodation providers and significantly increasing supply.

TasCOSS chief executive Kym Goodes said the soaring prices of rentals confirmed wage earners were joining people on the lowest incomes, such as Newstart and age pensions, in being priced out of Hobart’s housing market.

Shelter Tasmania executive officer Pattie Chugg said the combination of rising rent and low income growth had created “unprecedented hardship” for many people.

Ms Chugg has called on the Government to invest a $60 million stamp duty windfall from the booming property market into new social housing in the upcoming state Budget.

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Greens leader Cassy O’Connor also called for immediate and strong action, such as capping rent increases at CPI.

“Families are being forced into homelessness because they can’t afford the rent,” Ms O’Connor said. “This is not the way a civilised society treats its people.”

Housing Minister Roger Jaensch issued a statement reiterating that the government was implementing measures agreed at the March housing summit, and will invest an additional $125 million in its Affordable Housing Action Plan.

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