Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 16
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RENTAL INSIGHTS:
COPING WITH
LOW INCOME
COPING WITH LOW INCOME
Peter Phibbs
The University of Sydney
The private rental
market—a COVID-19
inequality
accelerator
XXX
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Key findings
Why is it important?
Who is most affected?
The private rental market
acted to increase the
disadvantage of lowincome households
during COVID-19. The
ability to negotiate
rent reductions and
the adequacy of living
environments provide
two key examples of
inequality acceleration.
The housing market will act to deepen
disadvantage for Australian households
unless it is explicitly considered in all
policy frameworks.
Households with the lowest incomes
struggled the most to be able to seek
rent relief and to use their homes as a
workplace or learning centre.
Households on the lowest incomes are
the most at risk in a recession and are
likely to need the most consideration in
negotiating a rent reduction but appear
to be receiving the least assistance.
This is in stark contrast to assistance
for home purchasers who were able to
arrange mortgage repayment deferrals
from their banks without negotiation
One-parent families were the most
common household type to report
that their home was not adequate for
work or study. There was also a strong
income gradient in the data, with lower
income households much more likely
than higher income households to
report their homes as inadequate
for work or study.
Households on the lowest incomes
had the most trouble negotiating a
rent reduction with their landlord/real
estate agent.
Households on the lowest incomes
were much more likely to report that
their housing was not adequate at all
for working or learning from home.
While the freeze on evictions was a
good initiative, the arrangements for
negotiating a rent reduction were not
clear to all key stakeholders. For some
tenants, the stress of negotiating
rent reductions added to the other
financial stresses that the pandemic
generated. Asking someone to enter
into negotiations, often with a real
estate agent whose income was tied to
rent revenue, generates considerable
stresses for all parties.
In relation to learning and working from
home, these policies need to explicitly
consider the housing situation of all
households. Children in households
with lower incomes are already at a
learning disadvantage. If these children
are unable to effectively learn in their
home environment, their disadvantage
is compounded.
… the stress of
negotiating rent
reductions just added
to the other financial
stresses …
