Australia’s rental crisis continues to worsen amid the strongest immigration boom in the nation’s history, which saw an estimated 500,000 net migrants land in Australian in 2022-23:
This unprecedented migrant surge has driven rental listings across the combined capital cities to all-time lows, with levels tracking around half ‘normal’ levels:
Source: CoreLogic
This collapse in rental listings has pushed the combined capital city vacancy rate to a record low 0.9%:
Source: CoreLogic
Analysis from National Shelter showed that homelessness increased by 50% between 2020 and 2022. There was also a doubling of people living in “improvised homes, tents and rough sleeping”:
The situation would have worsened this year, given the acute shortage of accommodation alongside soaring rental price inflation.
Not surprisingly, new data from Flatmates.com.au revealed that demand for share housing continues to rise.
In October, Flatmates.com.au witnessed an abnormal surge in demand. The number of members joining the platform increased by 11.2%, surpassing the hectic September figure and surpassing October 2022 by 15.6%.
In addition, the number of newly listed properties on Flatmates.com.au increased substantially, by 38% in the past year and 9.7% month-over-month, as the rising cost of living prompted households to seek an alternative income stream.
Claudia Conley, Flatmates.com.au Community Manager, explained the results as follows:
“October has been our fourth busiest month on the platform this year, after our usual peak summer period”.
“The volume of traffic we’ve seen on Flatmates.com.au in October we don’t usually see until December, indicating that demand for share accommodation is heating up well ahead of our peak season”.
“2023 has been Flatmates.com.au’s busiest year on record, due to a record-breaking summer and without our typical seasonal winter slump. It’s clear more Australians are turning to share accommodation as pressures on the rental market and a cost-of-living crisis fail to die down”.
“An increase in property listings by 38% since the same time last year reflects the growing trend of homeowners renting out their spare rooms”.
“Half of all property listings on Flatmates.com.au are from homeowners, with the majority of these being live-in landlords renting out a spare room in their home”.
“Despite this growing trend, more property listings are still needed across the country to keep up with the growing demand for share accommodation”.
The rental crisis continues to be driven by the Albanese government’s unprecedented immigration program.
Net overseas migration must, therefore, be lowered to a level below the nation’s capacity to supply new housing and infrastructure.
Otherwise, Australia’s rental crisis will deteriorate further, pushing tenants into deeper financial stress, share housing, or homelessness.
