ANGLICARE’S 2024 Rental Affordability Snapshot has revealed that Australians are facing a rental market that has never been less affordable.

The research surveyed rental listings across Australia and found that affordability has crashed to record lows.

Out of 45,115 rental listings, it was found that zero rentals were affordable for a person on Youth Allowance.

The internationally accepted benchmark is that rent needs to be no more than 30 percent of a household budget to be affordable for people on low incomes.

A total of 289 rentals (0.6 percent) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage, while 89 rentals (0.2 percent) were affordable for a person on the Age Pension.

Just 31 rentals (0.1 percent) were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension, and three rentals (all share houses) were affordable for a person on JobSeeker.

The report also shed a light on the realities of renting in the Hunter region.

Every year Newcastle Anglican tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market.

“We do this by taking a snapshot of the properties listed for rent on realestate.com.au on one weekend in March,” the report states.

“We then assess whether each property is affordable and suitable for fourteen types of households on low incomes.”

To test whether a listing is affordable, Newcastle Anglican calculates the income for the household types using government data.

These figures are used to calculate the maximum affordable rent for each household type, and are compared against listed properties that are suitable for each household type.

On the weekend of 16 March 2024, 1,749 private rentals were advertised for rent across the Newcastle, Hunter, Lake Macquarie, Central Coast and Mid Coast regions.

Results found that twelve (0.7 percent) individual properties were suitable for at least one household type living on income support payments without placing them in housing stress.

A total of 179 (10.2 percent) individual properties were suitable for at least one household type living on minimum wage without placing them in housing stress.

Following the release of the results, the Community Housing Industry Association NSW (CHIA NSW) is calling on the NSW Treasurer to urgently invest in social and affordable housing.

“The findings of this year’s snapshot are unacceptable,” said CHIA CEO Mark Degotardi.

“The fact that young people on Youth Allowance can’t find a single affordable property is an indictment of just how bad this housing crisis has become.”

With nearly 58,000 families and individuals on the state’s social housing waitlist, Mr Degotardi said the time for half-measures has passed.

“Affordability in the rental housing market has hit rock bottom.

“The NSW Government must respond by investing significant sums in social and affordable housing.

“NSW families and the NSW economy will suffer for decades to come if we do not begin to address the rental affordability problem.

“An investment of just $2 billion a year over five years would allow for the construction of the homes that families in NSW desperately need,” said Mr Degotardi.

“This modest investment pales in comparison to the $72.3 billion allocated for transport projects in last year’s budget.”