It’s no secret that rental affordability has gone from challenging to impossible for many, and that renters are facing major challenges. Produced annually by National Shelter and SGS Economics and Planning, the RAI is a key resource for tracking rental affordability across Australia.
The 2024 report, now with 10 years of rich data has been released today.
The report shows that Sydney rental prices are the highest in country, with rental affordability hitting record low and that Regional NSW is no longer the safe haven it once was for both locals and people moving from other parts of NSW.
If you tune into tv, radio or open a newspaper today and over the weekend you’ll be learning more about the research.
If you’re up early today tune into ABC TV NSW Breakfast at about 6:35am, Shelter NSW CEO and National Shelter Chair John Engeler will be appearing to talk about the crisis being experienced by low income renters right around the country and our collective call to action to all levels of Government.
Shelter NSW is using this report to repeat its calls to the NSW Government and the Commonwealth to increase social housing to 5% of all housing stock in NSW by 2027 and 10% social housing by 2040 (to create a solid and genuine alternative to the private rental market especially for very low and vulnerable cohorts).
And to the NSW Government to:
- urgently wind back the short-term rental market – to create a better balance especially in coastal and metro local government areas where traditional rental stock has been gutted
- deliver on its promise of thousands of regulated affordable rental properties created through the large Transport Oriented Development program
- stay the course of implementing its rental reform agenda and look to the next stage of regulating the size of rental increases (with the ACT showing that it can be done)
- You can find the 2024 Rental Affordability Index report and interactive data on the SGS Economics and Planning website. We encourage you to take a look and use the interactive website to see how affordable your local area is especially for low-income and other vulnerable cohorts.
- Media Release for Metro NSW and Regional NSW
