Photos reveal shocking reality of housing crisis
The ABS considers someone to be in housing stress if their costs, such as rent or mortgage repayments, are more than 30 per cent of their gross income.
Sydney’s median unit asking rent hit $775 a week in September, up $55 compared to the same time the previous year, while Melbourne rose $30 to $580 a week for the same time period, according to Domain data. Brisbane’s median unit rent is $625, and Perth’s is $660.
This “self-contained bungalow” in Melbourne’s Doveton is for rent for $230 per week, and the listing encourages applicants to be quick.Credit: Just Realty International
Recent Grattan Institute research indicated a “cheap one-bedroom dwelling” in a major city would cost about $350 a week, said Coates.
A review of listings on Domain found scant affordable options for solo tenants, particularly for those wanting to rent a non-shared dwelling in the Sydney region. Many properties listed at around $300 per week were boarding house-style options or rooms in private houses.
There was a studio in Sydney’s West Pennant Hills available for $195 per week. It was described in the listing as “unusual,” and for the “budget conscious.”
This West Pennant Hills studio is for rent for $195 per week.Credit: Homefront Real Estate
Kasy Chambers, executive director at Anglicare Australia said the “single biggest thing” any government could do to affect poverty was to raise support payments, adding that her organisation had spoken to people paying as much as 80 per cent of their income on private rent.
A studio apartment in Melbourne’s Preston is for rent for $235 a week.Credit: Ray White Mill Park
“People, particularly parents, go without food. We see people who are typically skipping, you know, a meal a week, or … they’re eating two meals a day, and those meals are often not nutritious,” she said.
The renters who are on the lowest income are the ones that need support, said housing crisis campaign organisation Everybody’s Home national spokesperson Maiy Azize.
“There’s really fierce competition for the most affordable rentals, and there just aren’t that many of them,” she said.
A granny flat in Quakers Hill is asking $320 per week.Credit: Starr Partners Blacktown
Australia’s growing population has the potential to make rents even more unaffordable, said Leo Patterson Ross, the spokesperson for the National Association of Renters’ Organisations.
“We would like to see the combination of JobSeeker and rent assistance, or JobSeeker or any other payment and rent assistance combined, be enough to raise people above the poverty line, including their housing costs,” he said.
“And that’s a big increase for both really.”
Grattan’s Coates said there was no evidence that past increases in rent assistance had lifted rents. He said the “overwhelming majority of rent assistance payments benefit renters, rather than landlords”.
