Rental crisis exposed in new SA study
South Australia’s minimum wage workers, Jobseeker recipients and pensioners have almost no options when it comes to affordable rental properties, new research shows.
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A study released by AnglicareSA today examined 1125 rental properties listed on the weekend of March 19, finding just two were “affordable and appropriate” for a single person working on minimum wage.
Further, no rentals were affordable for a single person on Jobseeker, Youth Allowance or the aged pension, while just four properties were affordable for a couple on Jobseeker with two children.
Affordability was defined as no more than 30 per cent of a household budget taken up by rent.
Believe Housing Australia head of housing operations Stacey Northover said the situation would continue to get worse without “meaningful intervention” from government.
“We urgently need to confront the disturbing reality of what this means: literally tens of thousands of South Australians – including children – are becoming more vulnerable to housing stress and homelessness and that number is likely to increase,” she said.
“Investing in more social and community housing and a permanent increase to income support payments is the most powerful way to make the market more affordable and ensure South Australians do not have to choose between rent and food to keep a roof over their heads.”
South Australia’s increasingly unaffordable rental market is also compounded by a scarcity of vacant dwellings.
The most recent figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia show Adelaide has the least accessible rental market of any Australian capital city with just 0.6 per cent of dwellings vacant.
Nationally, Anglicare’s full survey of 45,992 rental listings found 98 per cent are too expensive for workers on the minimum wage.
Anglicare’s full survey of 45,992 rental listings across the country showed just 712, or two per cent, could be afforded by Australians earning minimum wage.
People living on the disability support pension were even worse off, only able to afford 52 rental properties, or less than one per cent of the rental listings.
There were just eight affordable rentals for people living on Jobseeker – all rooms in share houses.
