Rental Affordability Snapshot 2019

Abstract

The Rental Affordability Snapshot highlights the lived experience of looking for housing on a low income. It focuses on those who earn the least– people on government income payments and people earning the minimum wage.

Every year Anglicare Australia tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. We do this by taking a snapshot of the thousands of properties listed for rent on realestate.com.au on one weekend in March or April. We then assess whether each property is affordable and suitable for fourteen types of households on low income. Those households are:

• single people receiving the Disability Support Pension, Youth Allowance, Newstart and the Aged Pension, or earning minimum wage
• single parents receiving the Parenting Payment or earning the minimum wage
• elderly couples without children on the Aged Pension, and
• couples with children on Newstart, Parenting Payment, earning the minimum wage, or a combination of these income sources.

This year’s Snapshot surveyed over 69,000 private rental listings across the country over one sample weekend. Once again, we found a dire crisis for people on the lowest incomes.

We found that no properties in any capital city were affordable for a single person on Youth Allowance or Newstart. In fact, there were only two properties across the entire country that were affordable for people on these payments.