CoreLogic’s latest rental snapshot shows that Australia’s rental market is the tightest on record, with the vacancy rate at a record low 1.2% across the combined capital cities.
This extreme tightness has delivered double-digit rental increases, with all major capital markets recording strong rises:
The rapid rental growth has the CEO of housing charity Shelter declaring a “national emergency by every available measure”, with official records showing no comparable shortage of available tenancies since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
To add insult to injury, the outlook is even more dire in 2023 as Australia’s cities are flooded with migrants and foreign students.
‘There’s a massive issue of competition which is putting people at risk of homelessness”, Shelter’s CEO Emma Greenhalgh said.
CEO of the Tenants’ Union of New South Wales, Leo Patterson, likewise said “we haven’t seen such low vacancy rates where people are very worried, very distressed about their chances of being housed in the coming weeks or months”.
CEO of Tenants Queensland, Penny Carr, declared “a national emergency and a crisis”, and called for solutions “from all levels of government, improving laws, renting crisis, disincentivising vacant and holiday homes”.
Finally, Maiy Azize, campaign spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, called for “a big investment in social homes for struggling renters”.
“People are already doing everything they can to keep a roof over their head. We have heard stories of people skipping meals, avoiding the doctor, getting behind on their bills, and even taking out payday loans just to keep on top of soaring cost of housing”, Azize said.
Why is it that these housing associations never acknowledge the elephant in the room: the ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration policy?
The Albanese Government has just implemented the largest permanent migrant intake in this nation’s history.
Labor has also turbo-charged temporary migration by giving unlimited work rights to international students, alongside extending post study work visas, which has already sent temporary migration inflows to record levels:
Then we have China’s directive that it will no longer recognise foreign academic degrees and diplomas if the study was conducted online, which is expected to see 40,000 to 50,000 Chinese students land in Australia over the next two months, equating to roughly one-third of available rentals in Sydney and Melbourne.
And this directive by China was enthusiastically cheered on by the Albanese Government.
The upshot is that Australia’s immigration intake will be the largest on record in 2023 by a very wide margin.
Where are the hundreds of thousands of new migrants expected to arrive supposed to live when there is already a dire shortage of homes for the existing population? On the streets?
Labor’s Big Australia policy is an inequality disaster in the making that will create a permanent rental shortage and force thousands of Australians into extreme housing stress and homelessness.
The least these housing associations could do is be honest, acknowledge the issue and demand lower immigration so that rental demand better matches supply.
Otherwise, Australia’s rental crisis will become a permanent feature of Australia.
