NSW faces record-breaking rent increases and housing shortages due to unreliable government services

Australia’s brutal housing crisis has left people being tossed out of their ‘unhabitable and pest-infested’ houses by landlords with no negotiations on rent increases and vacancy rates at an all-time low.

NSW currently has a shortage of 215,000 homes that are genuinely affordable to people who fall under the lowest 40% bracket of income, which is said to be growing by 5000 homes each year.

CEO of Tenants’ Union of NSW, Leo Patterson Ross said, “For many years, housing has not been considered as an essential service, resulting in what we are seeing now across the country.

“As of this January, vacancy rates have been at 0.8% nationwide and worse in regional NSW. We’ve seen changes to rent bidding, and agents and landlords cannot solicit a price higher than the advertised amount for a rental”.

Tenants’ Union anticipates the increase in rent as a result of housing being left without a shared goal of ensuring that people have access to and can afford good quality homes.

He said, “It’s up to the government to legislate protections and provide necessary supply in housing stock to keep up with demand and population growth”.

According to SQM Research, statistics show that the rent in Sydney has increased by 30.2% for all units and by 22.6% for all houses as recorded in April 2023.

With the current scenario of rising interest rates, Leo anticipates that “interest rate rises do not directly affect rent prices. However, it increases unemployment which makes people struggle to pay their rents, and a decrease in supply causing an increase in rent in the medium to long run”.

The Tenants’ Union of NSW hopes to see the NSW Labor government deliver on its election promises, including putting a stop to ‘no grounds’ eviction which currently determines all parts of renting law, including rent increases.

“The NSW Labor government has committed to 30% affordable, social, and universal housing on surplus public land”, he said.

At a federal level, the Albanese government pushed forward plans for a Housing Affordability Future Fund (HAFF) through which Labor is proposing 30,000 social and affordable rental homes over 5 years including 4000 designated homes for women and children fleeing family and domestic violence situations and older women who are at risk of homelessness.