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Affordable private rental supply and demand: Short-term disruption and longer-term structural change

Author/s

Margaret Reynolds, Sharon Parkinson, Jacqueline De Vries, Kath Hulse

Abstract

This research analyses the ABS Census to reveal changes in the supply of private rental housing affordable and available to lower-income households (Q1 and Q2 households) over both the short term (2016–21) and the longer term (1996–2021). It also provides analysis of how COVID-19 policy and population responses temporarily altered the long-run structural trajectory of the private rental sector in Australia.

Between 2016 and 2021 private rental sector growth was concentrated at mid-market levels; in dwellings renting from around $300–$530 per week ($2021). This continues a major change trend first established in 2011, reinforcing the structural shift to a market concentration of dwellings renting at mid-to-higher levels.

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