Low-income earners priced out of rentals
Low-income Australians are being priced out of the private rental market in capital cities and mining boom towns, a welfare group says.
Anglicare Australia on Monday released a Rental Affordability Snapshot which examined rental rates on 65,000 properties advertised during a weekend in mid April.
The snapshot tested the affordability of rents for people - most Australians spend 30 per cent of their income on accommodation - on government payments or the minimum wage.
Executive director Kasy Chambers said in Canberra housing stress was a national crisis.
“In Perth, there is absolutely nothing available for anyone on a single income, and these results are largely replicated across all our capital cities,” she said.
She said an assessment of 20,000 Sydney and Melbourne properties found only 40 that were suitable for low-income earners.
Anglicare wants housing stress to be put on the national agenda.
Ms Chambers said the Federal Government needs to consider reshaping negative gearing and tax treatment of the family home.
“We need to find the capital, by investing some of the trillions of dollars we have in superannuation into affordable housing, as is done in other parts of the world,” she said.
Ms Chambers said Commonwealth rental assistance was not nimble enough to work across areas with high rents and demand.
She said mining towns were also feeling the pinch.
Families are going without visits to the doctors, dental treatment and car insurance and, in some cases, are cutting back on groceries to pay for rent, Ms Chambers said.
