Rental Trends
The ongoing saga of Hobart’s rental crisis continues to add prominent voices to its ever-growing chorus, as Shelter Tas CEO Pattie Chugg has recently publicly highlighted the need for urgent assistance. While this will come as no shock to Tasmanian renters, Ms Chugg said, “Hobart in particular has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country and is the least affordable capital city in Australia for renters.”
Although Tasmania’s rental crisis has been well documented for many years now and has received some intervention from the state government, this has only brought renters minimal relief, says Ms Chugg. Citing the state intervention as too little and too late, she reiterated, “recent investment from the Tasmanian State Government has made a difference, but we need the Federal Government to step in as well.” Even following this help from our state government, using census data The Community Housing Industry Association has discovered the trend is showing no signs of slowing. Finding that 6% of Hobart households and 6.5% of Launceston households are not appropriately housed. Meaning up to 6.5% of our Tasmanian population are facing homelessness, live in an overcrowded home or are spending over 30% of their income on rent. While our rental industry’s issues are somewhat unique due to our island status and smaller population, CHIA CEO Wendy Hayhurst when speaking to The Mercury stated the country wide implications of the trend. Explaining, “there are currently 640,000 Australian households whose housing needs are not being met, and this figure is projected to increase to 940,000 by 2041,” painting a dire picture of our future.