I caught up with Morgan Cox, who asked a simple and direct question on ABC Q&A the other day about the rental crisis hitting Australian families, and migration.
The answers from the panelist were appalling, and showed they were playing lip-service to the issue rather than wanted to deal with the real issue, which should be top of mind as the election approaches.
The reaction across socials was amazing, so kudos to Morgan, an ordinary bloke, with a family, trying to get by, willing to take a stand and hold our politicians to account!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Those in the rental sector of the property market, a growing proportion of the population, are in the crosshairs of the affordability crisis. Indeed, as discussed in my live show on Tuesday, around 76% of those renting have a cash-flow deficit, or are in rental stress.
The latest data from the ABS reported that Rental prices Rental prices rose 6.4 per cent over the 12 months to the December quarter, down from 6.7 per cent in the September quarter. Rental price growth continues to reflect low vacancy rates and a tight rental market. However, the September quarter results showed a partial impact of the CRA changes, while the remaining impact has been reflected in the December 2024 quarter. Excluding the changes to CRA, rents would have increased by 7.8 per cent over the 12 months to the December 2024 quarter.
The recent headlines about Australia’s rental crisis is easing on the back of data from both the ABS and CoreLogic. “Finally, renters are seeing some relief after a period of extreme rental growth,” Tim Lawless said. “Over the past five years capital city rents have surged by 37%. The previous five-year period saw rents rise by just 5%.”
And to cap it all, according to a recent Yahoo Finance article, some rental properties in Sydney and Melbourne are offering free rent to try and entice new tenants, as the market passes its recent boom.
Let’s be clear, the data shows that growth in rents is moving up faster than overall CPI, which is falling, somewhat, and real wages growth. So, can we really say things are improving in a sustainable way?
Now, SQM Research managing director, Louis Christopher said the sharp decrease in rental vacancies strongly indicated Australia’s rental market crisis was not over and could deteriorate further. “It looked like there was an easing in the vacancy rate at the end of 2024 and we were coming out of the rental crisis, but that’s not the case now,” he said.
“Could there have been another surge in migration levels in recent weeks? We don’t know for sure but clearly something has driven this retreat in rental vacancies”, Christopher said.
If the federal government continues growing the population faster than new homes can be built, the rental market will remain tight. The number one solution to Australia’s rental crisis is to significantly lower net overseas migration to a level compatible with the nation’s ability to build housing and infrastructure.
But don’t expect to hear that as a policy platform in the upcoming election, because more people flooding into the country is the only way to avoid a real recession. Expect the rental crisis to continue and Australian tenants to bear the brunt.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
Propaganda Says Rental Crisis Is Easing; But Don’t Believe it….
Those in the rental sector of the property market, a growing proportion of the population, are in the crosshairs of the affordability crisis. Indeed, as discussed in my live show on Tuesday, around 76% of those renting have a cash-flow deficit, or are in rental stress.
The latest data from the ABS reported that Rental prices Rental prices rose 6.4 per cent over the 12 months to the December quarter, down from 6.7 per cent in the September quarter. Rental price growth continues to reflect low vacancy rates and a tight rental market. However, the September quarter results showed a partial impact of the CRA changes, while the remaining impact has been reflected in the December 2024 quarter. Excluding the changes to CRA, rents would have increased by 7.8 per cent over the 12 months to the December 2024 quarter.
The recent headlines about Australia’s rental crisis is easing on the back of data from both the ABS and CoreLogic. “Finally, renters are seeing some relief after a period of extreme rental growth,” Tim Lawless said. “Over the past five years capital city rents have surged by 37%. The previous five-year period saw rents rise by just 5%.”
And to cap it all, according to a recent Yahoo Finance article, some rental properties in Sydney and Melbourne are offering free rent to try and entice new tenants, as the market passes its recent boom.
Let’s be clear, the data shows that growth in rents is moving up faster than overall CPI, which is falling, somewhat, and real wages growth. So, can we really say things are improving in a sustainable way?
Now, SQM Research managing director, Louis Christopher said the sharp decrease in rental vacancies strongly indicated Australia’s rental market crisis was not over and could deteriorate further. “It looked like there was an easing in the vacancy rate at the end of 2024 and we were coming out of the rental crisis, but that’s not the case now,” he said.
“Could there have been another surge in migration levels in recent weeks? We don’t know for sure but clearly something has driven this retreat in rental vacancies”, Christopher said.
If the federal government continues growing the population faster than new homes can be built, the rental market will remain tight. The number one solution to Australia’s rental crisis is to significantly lower net overseas migration to a level compatible with the nation’s ability to build housing and infrastructure.
But don’t expect to hear that as a policy platform in the upcoming election, because more people flooding into the country is the only way to avoid a real recession. Expect the rental crisis to continue and Australian tenants to bear the brunt.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Last week I published a show titled “The rental stress pips are squeaking” where I did a deep dive into rising rental stress across the country, to underscore the crisis we have in the rental sector. I called it the hidden crisis, because we get massive coverage of mortgage stress in the mainstream, media but rental stress not so much.
To underscore the crisis, new modelling from Impact Economics and Policy, a group of expert economists and policy specialists, estimates that back in 2022, as many as 3.2 million people were at risk of homelessness across the country, where one negative shock could result in them losing their home. This represents a 63% increase between 2016 and 2022 in the number of Australians at risk of homelessness.
A recent survey showed that 39% of Specialist Homelessness Services had to close their doors to people seeking help because they were unable to cope. With the homelessness services unable to cope despite the increase in people needing help, not enough are being assisted, and many are not even seeking help because they know they won’t get through.
Now, SGS Economics and Planning has release the tenth edition of the Rental Affordability Index (RAI) today, which shows that since 2015, rental affordability has declined in most cities, limiting where people can live and work and reshaping communities nationwide. Once affordable areas like South West Sydney and South East Melbourne are now increasingly out of reach for average rental households. Their analysis based on a different approach aligns with what I have been reporting.
The report lands as the Albanese government struggles to get support to pass two key housing bills, dismissing a last minute offer from the Greens as more about politics than progress.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
Homeless; Renters Punished And Perth Is Worse Than Sydney!
Last week I published a show titled “The rental stress pips are squeaking” where I did a deep dive into rising rental stress across the country, to underscore the crisis we have in the rental sector. I called it the hidden crisis, because we get massive coverage of mortgage stress in the mainstream, media but rental stress not so much.
To underscore the crisis, new modelling from Impact Economics and Policy, a group of expert economists and policy specialists, estimates that back in 2022, as many as 3.2 million people were at risk of homelessness across the country, where one negative shock could result in them losing their home. This represents a 63% increase between 2016 and 2022 in the number of Australians at risk of homelessness.
A recent survey showed that 39% of Specialist Homelessness Services had to close their doors to people seeking help because they were unable to cope. With the homelessness services unable to cope despite the increase in people needing help, not enough are being assisted, and many are not even seeking help because they know they won’t get through.
Now, SGS Economics and Planning has release the tenth edition of the Rental Affordability Index (RAI) today, which shows that since 2015, rental affordability has declined in most cities, limiting where people can live and work and reshaping communities nationwide. Once affordable areas like South West Sydney and South East Melbourne are now increasingly out of reach for average rental households. Their analysis based on a different approach aligns with what I have been reporting.
The report lands as the Albanese government struggles to get support to pass two key housing bills, dismissing a last minute offer from the Greens as more about politics than progress.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Following my live show on Tuesday I had a number of requests for mapping of the Rental Stress story across the country. So in this show we look at the distribution of rental stress both in count and percentage terms, based on DFA modelling and surveys.
Live show was here: https://youtu.be/c8rTWEEw2KU
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Following my live show on Tuesday I had a number of requests for mapping of the Rental Stress story across the country. So in this show we look at the distribution of rental stress both in count and percentage terms, based on DFA modelling and surveys.
Live show was here: https://youtu.be/c8rTWEEw2KU
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
This is the second in a series of posts showing our latest mapping of rental stress. For our methodology see our recent live show https://youtu.be/YIl4sh-WxIA
Part 1: Default Risk Mapping https://youtu.be/JSk0I7n-gXI
In today’s show we deep dive on the rental stress across the country. The results are not pretty.
Next time, we will look at property investor stress – the Ying to Yang of rental stress!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Domain has released its Rental Report for March, which delivered more bad news for tenants, on top of the data I released recently which showed three quarters of those renting already have cash-flow issues. Younger families and first-generation Australians are being hit really hard, but as I discussed in my live show, other household categories are also being caught in the rental squeeze. And despite the rise in rents, some investors are selling due to poor net returns.
With net overseas migration forecast to remain historically high, albeit lower than last year, Australia’s rental crisis will continue, even if vacancy rates and rental inflation ease a little.
As a result, more Australians will be plunged into rental stress, group housing, or homelessness.
The solution is to cut net overseas migration hard to a level well below the nation’s capacity to build homes and infrastructure.
The other factor no one is talking about is that renters under extreme pressure are being coerced into buying property, even if its poor quality or in the wrong area, just to exit the rental sector and try to get some control. With borrowing power down about 40-50%, these households are leveraging up, as see by the larger loan balances against income. But this could be an issue of jumping from the frying pan into the fire!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
Tenants Caught In The Python-Like Property Squeeze Have To Pay More!
Domain has released its Rental Report for March, which delivered more bad news for tenants, on top of the data I released recently which showed three quarters of those renting already have cash-flow issues. Younger families and first-generation Australians are being hit really hard, but as I discussed in my live show, other household categories are also being caught in the rental squeeze. And despite the rise in rents, some investors are selling due to poor net returns.
With net overseas migration forecast to remain historically high, albeit lower than last year, Australia’s rental crisis will continue, even if vacancy rates and rental inflation ease a little.
As a result, more Australians will be plunged into rental stress, group housing, or homelessness.
The solution is to cut net overseas migration hard to a level well below the nation’s capacity to build homes and infrastructure.
The other factor no one is talking about is that renters under extreme pressure are being coerced into buying property, even if its poor quality or in the wrong area, just to exit the rental sector and try to get some control. With borrowing power down about 40-50%, these households are leveraging up, as see by the larger loan balances against income. But this could be an issue of jumping from the frying pan into the fire!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
