Rental Affordability Index for Australia

Media Release: 24 November 2015

Rental Affordability Index for Australia

National Shelter, Community Sector Bank and SGS Economics and Planning have partnered to launch Australia’s first ever Rental Affordability Index.

The Index reveals the depth and extremity of housing stress faced by renters in the current market. Both low income and moderate income households suffer poverty due to high rental costs.

Housing stress occurs when households pay 30% of income or more on rent. Low income households are required to pay around 65% of income on rent to access a tenancy. This means that rents are extremely unaffordable.

This first issue of the Index reveals evidence that low income households are in a dire situation, single income households are the worst off and rent costs are now locking low and moderate income households out of inner cities. The report gives a blow by blow account of rental affordability in Australia’s major cities.