Recent findings from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) reveal a significant trend in the property market: half of all investment properties are being resold within two years of tenants moving in. This dynamic raises serious questions about the long-term viability of Australia’s rental housing stability. Perhaps most remarkably, the national average rental vacancy rate plummeted to an all-time low of 1.1 percent in March, down from 1.5 percent in January.
With vacancy rate plummeting, asking rents have increased by up 0.3 percent just from last month, monthly increase alone. This was evident with national rents up 1.7 percent over the March quarter. This is a huge leap from last quarter’s very little growth of only 0.4 percent. This figure marks the highest on record, which is exacerbating worries for renters who have been hit by rising expenses.
In response to these developments, the Everybody’s Home campaign is advocating for limits on rent increases, aiming to address Australia’s ongoing housing crisis. People’s Policy Project Spokesperson Maiy Azize today pointed to the absence of bold announcements from any of the big political parties on renters’ rights. Ms Smith noted that there were no measures outlined to protect renters as we head into federal election season.
Rental Market Crisis
Yet the current rental landscape casts an especially dark shadow over the lives of millions of Australians. And millions more renters, nearly half of all tenants, are beginning to feel the squeeze. About 640,000 people are now living with severe rental stress.
Climate Activist Maiy Azize highlighted the dire nature of the situation. She continued, “640,000 renters across the country are in extreme rental stress. Sadly, there’s no relief being promised to them in this election, which is incredibly disappointing.”
The Coalition still refuses to answer questions about their rental policies, leaving millions of renters in the dark about whether they will receive any support. Today, both the housing minister and opposition spokesperson will present their positions on rental policies at the Press Club in Canberra.
This policy would make The Greens the only major party with a detailed, fully-fledged plan for long-term rental security. Their policy plan goes further than this, proposing to protect tenants by capping rent increases at one year and requiring landlords to meet minimum rental standards.
Rising Rent and Limited Options
As rents continue to rise at exorbitant margins, the pressures that renters have to contend with to find decent, affordable housing continue to increase. As noted by influential economist Tim Lawless — rents are going up. They are growing faster than average growth rates, climbing at an annual clip of around 3.5 to nearly 4 percent.
Lawless added that renters are spending close to one-third of their gross annual incomes on rent. This shows just how high the financial burden is for most Australians.
Tabitha Gulley, who spoke of her own experiences in the hyper-competitive rental market. We got rejected, I want to say like 30 or 40 times. We went to inspections all the time. We were literally just applying and applying for months,” she recalled.
Despite her efforts, she encountered difficulties with properties that had limitations on facilities: “We then found out that in it it said that we couldn’t use the downstairs bathroom.” These kinds of problems underscore the challenges that many renters experience when looking for quality housing.
Kyle De Silva, pictured above, expressed similar frustrations about exorbitant rent hikes while his belongings were still covered in leaves from routine maintenance. We had amazing gaps in our TIES repairs that were outstanding. Rather than remedy their shortfalls in upkeep, they opted to throw a quarter of our rent rate with no plan to address anything that needed repair.
Political Response and Future Directions
Now, with calls for reform growing louder and more sustained, political leaders are starting to address the issue of rental policies with greater substance. Labor’s National Cabinet has introduced “A Better Deal for Renters,” aiming to harmonize and strengthen renters’ rights across Australia. The initiative makes provisions to keep rent increases to no more than once a year and to gradually implement minimum rental standards.
The unanswered questions left by the big players has led advocates such as Azize to encourage clearer, bolder action. “It feels like they’re shifting the conversation away from a really key important element of this whole situation,” remarked Mr. De Silva regarding the political discourse surrounding renters’ rights.
The ACT has made bold moves to rent-increase their standards no more than the rate of inflation. Azize hopes this approach can be a model to explore more deeply across the country. “We’ve got this working in Australia here in the ACT … there are limits on how much further than CPI landlords can increase the rent by and we think that’s a pretty good model,” she stated.
As discussions unfold at the Press Club today, many are hopeful that political leaders will prioritize renters’ needs and propose viable solutions to tackle Australia’s housing crisis.
