Map shows extent of dire crisis

NSW renters are spending more than 35 per sent of a household’s weekly income on rent, new data from Suburbtrends has revealed.

The worrying statistic comes as welfare groups warn a household is in rental stress if more than 30 per cent of its income goes towards rent.

Suburbtrends founder Kent Lardner said people “across the board” were falling under rental strain in “one fell swoop”, with conditions the toughest he’s his 20-year-plus career.

“Obviously the hardest areas being hit, specifically in Sydney is around the southwest of Sydney. A lot of that relates to household incomes being lower, so they’re going to be spending a higher proportion of income on rent.

Although metrics like rent prices are increasing, the vacancy rates are not. Mr Lardner described this as the “top end of the market filtering out and going to the next tier down”.

“It cascades down, and the squeeze ends up on the lower rungs and effectively the people at the bottom with the lowest incomes have nowhere to go,” he said.

“Some of these people are spending 30 to 40 per cent of that allocated weekly household income allocated to rent. Obviously that’s an issue but you’ve got all these other cost of living crisis happening at the same time.”

The data also collated a rental-pain metric, which collates metrics like 12-month increases to rents, vacancy rates, advertised rentals and the average rent as a percentage of income.

Across Sydney, 43 households were above a 75 on the Rental Pain Index, which suggests they are severely struggling in the current market.

In NSW, the regional suburb group of Deniliquin, reported the highest rental-pain index of 87, with the data reporting average rents had increased by 18 per cent in the past 12 months, with a suffocating vacancy rate of 0.4 per cent.

In Sydney, Bankstown North in the city’s south was second on the list.

While rents had increased by an average of 12 per cent year-on-year. Households were spending about 34 per cent of the income on rent.

Nationally, Queensland reported the highest jump in rent over the past 12 months, with prices increasing by about 16.33 per cent, followed by South Australia (15.95 per cent), and Western Australia (15.37 per cent).

The rental crisis has pushed the NSW Greens to call for an emergency rent freeze, which is currently before the parliament.

“The Greens want to make unlimited rent increases illegal, establish rent caps, and put hard limits on the amount and frequency of rent increases,” said Newtown MP Jenny Leong.

“With rent caps now being seriously considered in NSW, a rent freeze not ruled out in Victoria, and renter’s rights pushed onto the national cabinet agenda – it’s clear a rent freeze is possible.”

The NSW government has committed to removing no grounds evictions, a portable bond scheme, implementing rules to allow pets in rentals, and increasing measures to protect the data and security of renters.

The government has called on renters to provide feedback on the proposed rental reforms, and other policy to improve the state’s rental system. Submissions are open until August 11.

Originally published as NSW rental pain: Households spending more than 35 per cent on rent