Nowhere to live: Anglicare Tasmania releases annual Rental Affordability Snapshot
April 30, 2026
Tasmania’s housing crisis is now so entrenched that a person employed on the minimum wage cannot afford a room in an average-priced sharehouse in any part of the state, according to Anglicare Tasmania’s latest annual Rental Affordability Snapshot.
The Snapshot reviewed the 770 properties that were listed for rent on a weekend in March and assessed if they were affordable and appropriate for households on low and fixed incomes, including the Single Parenting Payment, Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.
This number represented a 9% drop in listings across Tasmania since last year and less than half the number of properties available 10 years ago. The most significant drop was in the South of the state, with an 18% reduction, following on from a drop of 32% the year before.
The report found that 0% of properties listed were affordable for:
- solo parent families receiving Single Parenting Payment or JobSeeker
- young Tasmanians receiving Youth Allowance
- single Tasmanians receiving JobSeeker; and
- Tasmanians receiving the Disability Support Pension.
Policy and Advocacy Officer with Anglicare’s Social Action and Research Centre, Ginny Toombs, said the unprecedented low vacancy rates and soaring rents are pushing a growing number of Tasmanians into housing insecurity and homelessness.
“Anglicare Tasmania has been producing this Snapshot for 20 years now, and the situation has never been more dire,” she said.
Even if a family can secure a tenancy, it will put so much pressure on the household budget that their children will grow up in poverty. Renters who have never had difficulty securing a property are really struggling in this market, and the impact on mental health is profound. It’s appalling that older Tasmanians on the Age Pension can’t afford to stay in their communities, in unshared accommodation close to the services they need.
“The Tasmanian Government needs to focus on the urgent housing needs of people in rental stress and those in varying kinds of homelessness, rather than people who are preparing to buy into the property market,” she said.
At the federal level, Anglicare Tasmania supports calls for an expansion of housing supply, an increase in income support payments that puts people above the poverty line, and reforms to the tax system so that people in housing need are prioritised over investors.
