WA capital is Australia’s most unaffordable city for renters, report finds
“This housing crisis is no longer limited to the lowest earners; it is escalating up the ladder affecting working families… effectively plunging them into housing stress.”
Snell said while the state government is making progress, what the state needs is “an ambition that matches the scale of the crisis.”
“This means an additional 5,000 social and affordable homes a year, capping rents, reining in short-term lettings, ending no-reason evictions and improving minimum standards,” he said.
SGS Economics and Planning director Ellen Witte said Perth’s rental market was shifting from steady to spiraling.
“Average rents rose just 1 percent a year in the three years before COVID, but have increased about 14 percent a year in the three years since,” he said.
“Rents in Perth have increased by more than 90 per cent since 2020, completely erasing the affordability gains made in previous years.”
So how does unaffordability actually affect renters?
The index found Perth’s coastal and central suburbs had the worst affordability rate.
Affordability of rent for single Jobseekers and single retirees in Perth and regional WA was classified as critically unaffordable and extremely unaffordable for single parents working part-time.
For a full-time hospitality worker, rents are extremely unaffordable in Perth, which accounts for half of their income, while rents are extremely unaffordable for regional WA, which takes up 44 per cent.
Matilda Campbell (a pseudonym used to protect her identity in future rental applications) said she was renting a spare room in a house advertised online with her parents and young children.
They had advertised the room cheaply to help them offset their mortgage, and the arrangement worked until she started asking him to watch their children, Campbell said.
Campbell began looking for another place to stay, but found nothing accessible.
“I was studying and working. I had a temporary job with no guaranteed hours. My income was pretty bad. I think I was making about $600 a week,” he said.
“There were some (rental options) around $250 a week, but that seemed too expensive to me at the time.”
Campbell now has a full-time job but had to move in with his parents.
“So many people take advantage of the desperation of others,” he said.
“It’s a basic need; housing is a basic need and a human right, and people sometimes do whatever they can to get what they want out of it.”
He said laws need to change before things get better.
“I don’t think there should be rent caps and I don’t think estate agents should be able to set the price of a property; there needs to be an independent body that determines value,” Campbell said.
“Agents and landlords need to be asked: ‘When you priced this rent, where did you get the price? How did you come up with this figure?’
“Every time I asked, the overwhelming answer was, ‘I match market value,’ but the people who decide market value are people who own investment properties, so of course it will increase.”
In another case, 72-year-old Lynette, who did not want her last name used, and her 73-year-old husband are living on a $966-a-week pension.
The rent for their apartment was increased to $825 per week.
Lynette said her husband could only work a few hours a day because if he worked longer they would lose their pension.
The couple now fears they will become homeless.
“Homeowners are extremely greedy and we know firsthand it has nothing to do with their mortgage,” Lynette said.
“I’m ready to explode.”
Robert Pradolin, founder and chief executive of Housing All Australians, said the rental crisis was also having a negative impact on WA’s economy.
“From cafes to hotels, hospitals to childcare centres, businesses in WA are struggling to find staff because there is no affordable place for them to live nearby,” he said.
“Even WA’s community services sector – the people who support our most vulnerable people – can’t recruit or retain staff because workers can’t afford to live in the communities they serve.
“Housing that people can afford is absolutely critical economic infrastructure, and without it, our prosperity takes a backseat.”
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