Red Flags as Australia’s Rental Crisis Bears Rock Bottom
By Kwedu News
Australia is currently facing a severe rental crisis as many families struggle to find affordable housing, especially in regional areas where rental vacancy rates are often less than 1%.
The latest research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) says three in five Australian renters do not ever expect to own their own home, leading to a need to policy shift, and rethinking of tax and housing systems in the nation.
In a report by The Guardian publication in Australia, one Kyle Ward (36) and his wife, taken as an example, are among Aussies affected by the crisis, and have been living in a cheap rental in Ipswich, South-east Queensland, for about three years paying $365 rent a week.
Ward, however, says when their landlord decided to sell the property to another investor, they were forced to find a new place to live.
The couple eventually found a replacement property, at $640 a week, almost double their previous rentals.
With a salary of about $68,000 a year, he says having savings is now just a pipe dream.
Ward’s experience is not unique with the AHURI reporting that about 78% of renters aspire to be homeowners but 51% of them rent because they do not have enough money for a home deposit.
The report also reveals that 41% of renters in Australia say they cannot afford to buy anything appropriate.
The research also shows that the situation is dire in the country, with many renters facing constant steep rent increases and a lack of affordable housing options.
Data on housing from PropTrack shows that 68 locations across Australia have less than 1% rental vacancy rate.
In regional Victoria, in the town of Castlemaine, only 10 homes are said to be available for letting, leaving many families struggling to find affordable housing.
In another case reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Central Victoria, one Shantelle Podhaczky and her 19-year-old son are among those affected by the crisis.
They have been living in a tent in bushland in Victoria after unsuccessfully searching for over 13 months to find a place to rent.
Podhaczky said that she has almost given up trying to secure a rental.
“It’s tiring emotionally and mentally. You just get to the point where you think, ‘What’s the point?” she is reported having said to the broadcaster.
Housing experts say the rental crisis in Australia is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach to solve.
They say that Australia needs to return to the post-war era of government funded affordable housing.
Victoria’s Residential Tenancies Commissioner, Heather Holst, says an adequate supply of social housing is ‘the one big solution’ that will fix the rental crisis.
“That would mean people who are currently having to rely on private rental don’t have to, they’re in social housing. Like post-war 1950s and 1960s Australia,” she said.
With the AHURI report saying many tenants are being priced out of the market, the report’s lead researcher, Prof. Emma Baker, of the University of Adelaide, says Australia is about ‘to flip’ from a nation of homeowners to a country of tenants.
“We’re expecting in the next census that there will probably be more renters than there are outright homeowners in Australia; which is a big social shift,” she said to ABC Central Victoria.
The rental crisis in Australia is now a national issue that requires a local fix, experts say.
In Castlemaine, housing workers have united to try and find new ways to solve the rental crisis.
My Home Network Coordinator for the area, Carolyn Neilsen, says nearly 90% of tenants in Castlemaine cannot afford the rent they are currently paying.
Neilsen and her team are working with the owners of the shire’s 1,100 vacant homes to unders and ‘friction points’ between potential landlords and renters.
They are also considering turning shop-tops into rental places.
Like in Castlemaine, research shows that all across Australia renters are facing similar steep rent increases and a lack of affordable housing options.
Average weekly rentals for a house, or a unit, in Australia is currently about $630, according to data from SQM Research.
Homelessness Australia Chief Executive Officer, Kate Colvin, is reported having said that people are being ‘squeezed out of the rental market.’
Colvin agrees that the housing emergency in the country for renters needs to return to the post-war 1950s and 1960s Australia.
“What we do need to see is more affordable rental housing in these locations, because people just can’t find a rental that they can afford.
“And the problem is that the most severe are at that cheaper end of the rental market,” she said.
