Anglicare Australia has published its Rental Affordability Snapshot for 2019, highlighting Australia’s bleak reality for housing affordability. The organisation’s member agencies conducted the Rental Affordability Snapshot over a weekend in March 2019. The study revealed that it is almost impossible for people receiving welfare payments to find affordable housing across the country.
This year’s snapshot surveyed 69,485 private rental listings and found that, devastatingly, no capital city in Australia had properties affordable for a single person on Youth Allowance or Newstart. Only one property out of the 69,000 examined over the snapshot weekend was affordable for people on Youth Allowance. Just two properties – one in the Riverina and one in the Orange regions – were able to be rented by a single person receiving Newstart.
554 rental properties were found as affordable for a single person on Age Pension, and only 317 were affordable for a person on Disability Support Pension.
The Rental Affordability Snapshot also assessed housing affordability for those working full-time on a minimum wage. Just 2 per cent of rental properties were affordable for this demographic, and 75% of properties were unaffordable for couples who both earn minimum wage and have two young children. While the number of available properties for people on minimum wage has increased since 2018 in Greater Sydney, the majority of these are located further away from the CBD in areas such as Western and Southern Western Sydney, the Central
Coast and the Blue Mountains.
This report has once again highlighted the urgent need for a firm and long-term commitment to the supply of more affordable housing from all levels of government, community and business sectors. The 2019 Rental Affordability Snapshot also includes detailed policy recommendations.
Read the Rental Affordability Snapshot 2019 – Greater Sydney and Illawarra here.
Read the Rental Affordability Snapshot 2019 – Breakdown of Results by Statistical Area – Greater Sydney and Illawarra here.