Latest news: Rental stress

Rents are still going up but are starting to find a ceiling as tenant budgets can be stretched no further. 

Canberra is the least affordable city to rent in Australia, but the ACT Government has set up a Rent Relief Fund.

Holt in Belconnen and Pearce in the Woden Valley are the two top ACT suburbs with the biggest increase in weekly asking rents in the past 12 months, according to the Domain Rent Report March 2023 Quarter released today.

Canberra’s rental vacancy rate bucked national trends, increasing in February to sit above two per cent, according to the PropTrack Market Insight Report released today.

The percentage of Canberrans receiving Rent Assistance who are still in rental stress has outnumbered any other state or territory for the past 5 years.

The median rental price in Canberra remains the most expensive in Australia, although prices slightly dropped during the December quarter.

Latest figures from the Federal Government show the ACT will lose 93 NRAS properties this year, plunging the Territory deeper into rental stress.

The latest Rental Affordability Index shows a snapshot of renting in Australia, and the ACT’s results are an “indictment”, according to ACT Shelter.

The federal housing minister has ruled out lifting Commonwealth rent assistance to help tenants cover soaring rents.

A staggering 90% of Australian prospective first home buyers, recorded being somewhat, very, or extremely stressed about purchasing their first property.

Rents in Canberra are increasing more than any other Australian capital city and there is no sign they're about to stabilise or come down.

A recent housing affordability report has placed Canberra as the most expensive capital city in which to rent a home in Australia.

The rental crisis in the ACT means many vulnerable people in the community are relying on government support to house themselves and their families.

The Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) is calling for all parties to make crystal clear how they will deliver safe, secure and affordable housing for Australians who are priced out of the housing market, wondering how they can afford sky rocketing rents, or paying huge energy bills because their home is so poorly insulated.

Everybody’s Home has released a heatmap revealing the proportion of households living in financial stress, and the majority of ACT households are affected.

Regional rents are now 18 per cent higher than two years ago, at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, a new report from the ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership shows. Given that wages have only risen by 6 per cent, the report concludes that regional rental housing affordability has significantly worsened during the public health crisis.