Private Rental Market Failure

Yesterday Anglicare Australia released its "Rental Affordability Snapshot" for 2012, and the findings have not been good.

Here are a couple of snippets from the press release:

Anglicare Australia's annual Rental Affordability Snapshot released by executive director Kasy Chambers shows the private rental market has failed Australians living on low incomes.

On the weekend of April 14 and 15, Anglicare agencies from every State and Territory in Australia conducted a snapshot of advertised private rental properties to test their affordability for two groups of people – households who rely entirely on Government payments, and households that rely on the minimum wage. 'Affordability' is classed as spending up to 30% of a low household income on rent.

“What the Snapshot shows is that people on the minimum wage need two incomes to rent a house. In many places even that is not enough,” Ms Chambers said.

“And for those trapped on the NewStart, supporting parent or youth allowance there is absolutely nothing suitable available at all.

“In our largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, with over 20,000 properties advertised between them less than 40 properties were considered suitable across all of the household types.

“In our regional areas too, housing for families on a low income is virtually non-existent with results like 2% of available properties in the Southern Tablelands in New South Wales for a single parent on the minimum wage or 6% of properties in Gladstone for a family of four.

“Anglicare's Snapshot gives an insight into the experience of housing stress, makes it clear how distant safe and secure housing is for hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Australians, and raises the question of why it isn't a true national priority.

The Rental Affordability Snapshot has attracted its share of media attention, as can be seen by these excellent reports from SBS and the ABC.

Click this link to download a copy of the snapshot.