RBA Governor Phil Lowe told this month’s Senate Estimates that he wants to see Australians group together in share housing to alleviate the rental crisis.
“We need more people on average to live in each dwelling”, he said.
“As rents go up, people decide not to move out of home, or you don’t have that home office, you get a flatmate”.
“Higher prices, they do lead people to economise on housing, don’t they?”
“Kids don’t move out of home because the rent is too expensive, or you decide to get a flatmate or a housemate because that’s the price mechanism at work”.
You can watch Phil Lowe’s testimony in the video below:
Hope you get on with your family, because RBA boss, Philip Lowe, has a suggestion for Australians struggling with rent.
Read more here: https://t.co/uNKAvgO4hE pic.twitter.com/yvTIo6jjxI— SBS News (@SBSNews) May 31, 2023
Data from the nation’s largest share house website, Flatmates.com.au, suggests that Phil Lowe is getting his wish.
As reported in The ABC earlier this month, “the number of people seeking to fill rooms in their homes has already significantly increased — with May 2023 breaking the record for the largest number of new users at 70,000”.
“Data provided showed the number of new sign ups each month had increased by up to 70% compared to the same time last year”.
The number of active members also rose by around 40% against the same month last year:
Over the weekend, Flatemates.co.au’s community manager Claudia Conley said demand was booming reflecting cost of living pressures and the worsening rental crisis.
“Many people are entering into shared accommodation for the first time as a way to keep costs low”, Conley said.
“We’re seeing a lot of people who would normally look for a solo rental are now looking at moving into a share house”.
“Some people unfortunately just cannot afford to live by themselves anymore due to the rising cost of living so they are entering into share accommodation for those reasons”.
For the first time, demand is being driven by older age groups, whereas younger people are instead choosing to stay at home with parents.
“We are seeing more and more older Australians who don’t own a home or who aren’t listing their home … looking for an existing share house to move into”, Conley said.
“Our younger demographic has dropped off because it’s just too expensive to move out of home … we are seeing more of the younger demographic stay at home for longer”.
The situation will only worsen from here.
According to CoreLogic, rental listings are tracking around half early pandemic levels:
Meanwhile, the federal budget projected that Australia’s population will grow by 2.18 million people over the five years to 2026-27, which is equivalent to adding five Canberra’s or one Perth’s worth of people.
This unprecedented population boom will be driven by a projected 1.5 million net overseas migration over the same five year period, and will occur at the same time as dwelling construction is collapsing amid widespread builder insolvencies and high materials and financing costs:
Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy told the latest Senate Estimates hearing that the decline in building approvals is expected to last until 2025, with investment in new dwelling projected to fall by 2.5% this year, 3.5% in 2023-24, and 1.5% in 2024-25.
Growing Australia’s population by 400,000 to 500,000 people per year while building fewer homes means the nation’s housing situation will worsen, resulting in higher rents and increased homelessness.
Running a record immigration program into a housing crisis is pure policy madness by the Albanese Government.
