Australia’s first rental affordability index has found Griffith is “acceptable” but still more expensive than almost everywhere else in the Riverina.
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With a rating of 125, Griffith is rated among Sydney suburbs like Campbelltown, Gosford on the state’s Central Coast and St Kilda in Melbourne. A report from SGS Economics & Planning, one of the groups behind the index, said households were likely to be paying about 25 per cent of their income on rent, close to the “critical threshold level of spending” at 30 per cent.
The local government area of Wagga was the only place more expensive than Griffith, scoring 109 and being “close to a situation of unaffordable housing”.
It follows the annual Cost of Living Report released by the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) in July which showed families were cutting back on essentials like healthcare and school holiday outings as families struggled to meet cost of living expenses.
Yvonne Wilson, chief executive officer (CEO) of Linking Communities Network said the dream of families owning a home was becoming less likely as rents continued to rise.
“People get locked into a cycle,” Ms Wilson said.
“The traditional family with only one parent working are struggling to meet their rent and save a deposit for a home.
“Even if they do get out of renting it’s quite a great deal of effort for a family to maintain a mortgage and still pay for necessities.”
Ms Wilson said she had heard of elderly people who had never owned their own home.
“Historically rents in Griffith have been much higher than anywhere else in the district,” she said.
“People are living on the borderline of poverty.”
The index, a joint project between peak housing advocate National Shelter, Community Sector Banking and SGS Economics & Planning, will be collated quarterly and used to lobby state and federal governments to address the critical shortage of social and affordable accommodation.
National Shelter's Adrian Pisarski said rental unaffordability was dividing Australia in a big way.
“Working families, according to this report, are experiencing severe housing stress,” Mr Pisarski said.
“This report shows housing affordability is a much bigger problem for renters than owner occupiers.
“Rental stress is a drag on productivity, is increasing poverty and breaking down social cohesion.”
Joe Sheehan from Community Sector Banking said Australia needed to build 180,000 new affordable houses every year simply to keep up.
“There is now every chance your children may never own their own home,” Mr Sheehan said.
“There has been a massive jump in the number of Australians experiencing housing stress.
“We cannot afford to end up like the UK where they seem to have almost given up dealing with the scale of their crisis.”
