Historic rental vacancy lows deepen national crisis

The reality of Australia's rental crisis has been laid bare in a new survey which reveals less than one per cent of rentals are affordable for people earning a full-time minimum wage.

It's the worst result ever recorded by Anglicare Australia's rental affordability snapshot, which surveyed nearly 46,000 listings across Australia. 

For most people on low incomes, rent needs to be no more than 30 per cent of the household budget to avoid financial stress.

With this benchmark, 0.8 per cent of rentals were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage and less than 0.5 per cent for people on the age or disability pension.

The survey found no rentals were affordable for people on Youth Allowance and a single parent on welfare payments would have to compete for the 0.1 per cent of affordable listings. 

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said the private rental market was failing Australians on low incomes. 

"Each year we think the market couldn't get any worse and each year we're shocked to see that it can," she said.

"If full-time wage earners are doing it tough, then people on Centrelink payments don't stand a chance."

Ms Chambers said the social housing shortfall had ballooned to 640,000 homes and failure to act would not tackle the rental crisis.

"The best way to make rentals more affordable is to build social and affordable homes," she said. 

"Building general homes and hoping affordability will trickle down just isn't working."

A separate report by the REA Group and PropTrack found the national rental market was extremely tight in the first quarter of 2023. 

In March, rental listings were sitting at historic lows in the combined capital cities. 

The report found surging demand saw the number of inquiries on real estate listings increase by more than eight per cent. 

Lack of stock meant properties were leased quickly and landlords had scope to increase rents. 

Nationally, the median weekly advertised rent was $500 per week, an increase of more than 11 per cent in the past 12 months.

But the report also found rental pressures were easing in regional Australia. 

Regional housing supply had increased and demand was moderating from the record highs seen during the pandemic.  

Report author Cameron Kusher said the biggest strain on the market was the lack of new rental supply.

"(Without) a return of investors to the market or a big increase in first home buyer numbers, it seems unlikely that the strong demand and insufficient rental supply will be rectified any time soon," he said.