There's A Looming Rental Crisis Down Under

Australia is facing a rental housing crisis.
Markus Winkler/Unsplash

Yes, housing markets are booming across Australia but there’s an underbelly that’s threatening to tilt the scales.

What are we talking about?

Rental vacancies down under have plunged to less than 1% with thousands of Australians waiting for public housing. Consider this against the backdrop of soaring property rates and you get the picture. 

50,000+ Queenslanders are waiting their turn, almost all markets are stressed, and the Northern Territory has the highest overcrowded housing rates.

Rampant homelessness

Remote zones like the Northern Territory depend only on public housing, since there are no private realty markets. 

Consider 16 people sharing six rooms in government housing in remote Elcho Island. Or a woman considering shifting to her car in Queensland due to public housing applications being rejected. 

There are thousands of such stories, compounded by heavy interstate migration. And let’s not even try to fathom the plight of those with tenancies expiring soon.

How things stand

🔼 Federal and local Governments have ramped up funding, non-profit social housing players are trying their best. 

🔽 But the overwhelming backlog is tremendous and does not show signs of resolution, even over several years. 

Yes, investors are making hay with rising property rates. However, deep beneath that layer of prosperity, lies an expanding underbelly. They are citizens with the same rights. 

Where will they go next? 

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