Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 38
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RENTAL INSIGHTS:
TENANT SATISFACTION
TENANT SATISFACTION
Kath Hulse
Swinburne University
of Technology
Christian A. Nygaard
Swinburne University
of Technology
Key findings
Eighty per cent (80%) of
lower-income households
experience rental
stress in the private
rented sectors (PRS) of
Melbourne and Sydney
(paying more than 30%
of their income on rents,
unadjusted for any Rent
Assistance).15
Perceptions of PRS
affordability in Melbourne
and
XXXSydney
XXX
The incidence of rental stress for
low-income households is even within
50km of Melbourne and Sydney CBDs.
Even though rents are typically lower in
outer parts of Melbourne and Sydney,
the perception of unaffordability for
very low- income households rises with
distance to the CBD. For higher-income
groups, perceptions of unaffordability
are either flat or declining with distance
to the CBD.
Why is it important?
‘The affordability focus is in central
locations. However, for very lowincome households the perception of
unaffordability is greater in outer parts
of Melbourne and Sydney’
Who is most affected?
Since the early 2000s, the private
rental sector (PRS) has grown rapidly in
Australia. In 2016, some 20 per cent of
very low-income Melbourne and Sydney
households lived in the PRS, 30 per
cent of low-income households. The
incidence of disadvantage in Australia is
linked to the geography of PRS.
Growth in the PRS has coincided with
a structural shift away from rental
properties for low-income households,
to mid- and higher-income households.
In Melbourne and Sydney, there is a
growing shortage of affordable and
available private rental options.16
As a result, low-income households
may be displaced to more peripheral
parts of capital cities17 where some
rental options may be more affordable;
or trade-off rental affordability for more
central access to labour markets and
urban amenities18.
Even though rents are typically lower in outer parts of
Melbourne and Sydney, the perception of unaffordability for
very low-income households rises with distance to the CBD.
15
PRS is here defined as renting from ‘real estate agent’ or ‘person not in the household’. Affordability/rental stress is here measured based on
household rent payment divided over gross household incomes category ($31,000 and $45,000, respectively). No separate adjustment made for Rent
Assistance. Lower-income is here defined as Q1 and Q2 households.
16 Hulse, K, Reynolds, M, Nygaard, C, Parkinson, S and Yates, J (2019) The supply of affordable private rental housing in Australian cities: short-term and
longer term changes, AHURI Final Report No. 323, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited, Melbourne.
17 Randolph, B and Tice, A (2014) ‘Suburbanising disadvantage in Australian cities: socio-spatial change in an era of neo-liberalism’, Journal of Urban
Affairs, vol. 36, no. S1: 1–16.
18 Hulse, K, Reynolds, M, op. cit.
