Housing investment must feature targets and transparency, says Anglicare

Anglicare Tasmania has encouraged the Tasmanian Government to develop a framework with clear targets for the availability of affordable housing to guide its investment in the State’s housing market.

Anglicare’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot, released today, shows rents are rising up to 10 times faster than income support payments, and an increasing number of Tasmanian children are being brought up in homelessness.

The Snapshot reviewed all properties listed for rent in Tasmania on a weekend in March, then assessed if they were affordable and appropriate for 14 types of households on low incomes.

“For a rental to be affordable, it must cost no more than 30% of household income, or that household will experience financial hardship,” said Mary Bennett, Coordinator of Anglicare’s Social Action and Research Centre.

Tasmania continues to have the least affordable rental market in the country. The 2023 Snapshot found that rental affordability had declined, in spite of a 41% increase in the total number of properties advertised statewide (1037, up from 737 in 2022). There were more properties listed in the South of the State this year, but numbers remained stagnant in the North and North West. The Snapshot showed that:

• there were no affordable and appropriate properties at all for 4 of the 14 low income household types, including people on Youth Allowance and Jobseeker;
• less than 0.5% of properties were affordable and appropriate for another 4 types of low income household;
• a single parent with a young child would have found only three affordable two-bedroom properties anywhere in Tasmania if they were receiving parenting payment and none if they were receiving Jobseeker;
• a single parent with two children could afford fewer than 1% of three-bedroom properties, even if they work full time on the minimum wage;
• only 90 properties were affordable for a single person on the minimum wage but most were sharehouses;
• 51 properties were affordable for someone on the Age Pension or Disability Support Pension, but 48 of them were sharehouses;
• only 15 properties statewide (small units and studios) were affordable and appropriate for a couple on the Age Pension.

“The Snapshot reveals a widening gap between the rents being charged and the amount that people on low incomes can afford,” said Ms Bennett. “It also highlights a range of other barriers. For example, share houses were advertised but are not suitable for all people. It’s also not appropriate to move to a remote area where people won’t have access to employment or family supports.”

Anglicare recommends the State Government establish and use a transparent investment framework that responds to market conditions to ensure an ongoing supply of affordable housing.

“A new framework could draw on data such as the rental vacancy rate, rental prices and the number of Tasmanians relying on income support payments to determine the need for public investment in affordable housing,” said Ms Bennett.

“There is a target range for inflation that guides the Reserve Bank of Australia in setting interest rates. It would make sense to develop a target range for the availability of affordable housing in Tasmania so that government investment increases and decreases in response to private rental market conditions and the housing needs of Tasmanians on low incomes.

“As well as resolving the current housing crisis it would help to prevent another crisis happening again,” she said.

Further reading:

Tasmania’s Rental Affordability Snapshot – including case studies featuring real Tasmanians.

Anglicare Australia’s National Rental Affordability Snapshot

Anglicare Tasmania supports the following national campaigns:

Everybody’s Home

Raise the Rate