The Blog

OPINION It is hard to go anywhere without hearing about Australia’s rental crisis. And for good reason, with rents soaring at record double-digit rates across much of Australia on the back of record tight rental vacancies.   Australia’s rental market initially tightened over the pandemic due to a desire for more space, the growing trend to working […]

One of them is Sarah Lyons*, who had been happily renting her Melbourne apartment for three years until last November, when the rent was hiked beyond what she could justify. “My rent increased by 30%, which I thought was ridiculous,” Ms Lyons. “I just couldn’t see the benefits of paying $500 per week for a […]

Interest rates have risen sharply in recent months, which has influenced the ability of borrowers to pay their mortgages. While some borrowers built up buffers over the last couple of years in the form of early repayments and substantial savings while rates were at a historic low, others were not so lucky. Many borrowers who […]

Our property markets have cooled from their peak, but housing affordability still plagues would-be first-home buyers. Buyer borrowing capacity is shrinking with every Reserve Bank interest rate hike, which, combined with concern about where the market is heading has replaced buyer FOMO (fear of missing out) with a fear of buying too soon. The question […]

Compared to the rest of the world, income inequality is not particularly high in Australia, nor is it getting much worse – until you include housing. Rising housing costs have dramatically widened the gap between what Australians on high and low incomes can afford. Rising home prices paired with plummeting rates of homeownership are driving up wealth […]

Key takeaways The housing wealth gap between younger and older Australians is undeniably growing. Two things have widened the divide: 1. The first relates to home ownership. While ownership rates for both groups have fallen, the decline has been steeper among the young (from 52% to 40%) than the old (80% to 69%). 2. The […]

National dwelling rent values increased a further 0.6% in December to be 2.0% higher through the December quarter and up 10.2% over the calendar year. Rents rose across every broad region and housing type across the country over the past year, ranging from a 4.0% rise in house rents across the ACT to a 15.5% […]

Tenants across the country fess up to hiding their pets from their property manager or landlord for fear of missing out on a rental or having to give up their furry friend. For tenants with pets, finding a rental can be made to feel that much harder as landlords often favour applicants without pets. So […]

As the rental market gets tighter in many areas, renters start to wonder what it takes to get the keys in their hands and their foot in the door. Rent bidding has become a popular road for many people desperate to get into a property. But what exactly is rent bidding and is it even […]

The NSW Government has banned solicited rent bids and changed the rules for how rental properties can be advertised. The new rules started on Saturday, 17 December 2022. If you are an agent: you cannot solicit rental bids. Soliciting a bid is when an agent invites a prospective tenant to increase their offer of rent higher than […]

A leading real estate expert has delivered a scathing review of the state government’s move to ban the practice of rental bidding in NSW amid a worsening rental crisis. In an email to members, Real Estate Institute of NSW CEO Tim McKibbin described the ban as “the latest, most hollow attempt” in the state government’s […]

According to new research by Finder, 83% of homeowners have reported being happy compared to only 69% of renters. According to Finder’s Consumer Sentiment Tracker, a nationally representative survey of more than 30,000 respondents, those who rent report lower levels of happiness and higher levels of money stress than homeowners. On average 83% of homeowners report being happy, […]

If you have never lived in an embedded network then many of you might be asking what this is and what does it have to do with renters? It’s no surprise to the Tenants Union of NSW that a lot of people do not know about embedded networks. Often renters don’t find out they are […]

As flooding impacts more NSW communities, new research from UNSW City Futures Research Centre, jointly commissioned by the Tenants’ Union of NSW along with Mission Australia, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, Social Futures, The Salvation Army Australia, Australian Red Cross shows action needs to be taken to safeguard regional Australians against homelessness and displacement as severe weather events become more common. […]

Banning the practice of rent bidding will “give more people security and certainty so they can plan for their future”, the Premier added. Rent bidding — or where a landlord or agent invites, suggests, or asks tenants to increase their offer for rent for a property in order to secure it — will be outlawed […]

In Australia, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the most common measure of inflation. According to the CPI, in 2022, the cost of housing rose by an incredible 7.3 per cent. Not only did this take form in rent increases, but also in the cost of building new homes and purchasing existing ones. For landlords, this […]

Flash flooding and storms have ravaged Australia’s east coast over the past 12 months, and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) predicts we can expect the extreme wet weather to continue during the coming months as La Niña returns for what will be the third summer in a row. It’s worrying news for property owners. Because we’ve already […]

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) highlighted that several tenancy law reforms in the past two decades rolled out by state governments, particularly in NSW and Victoria, have triggered concerns about disinvestment among landlords and investors being deterred from entering the rental market. To put the disinvestment claim to the test, researchers examined […]

Recent headlines have confirmed what the property industry has known for months now — the rental crisis in Australia is going to get worse before it gets better. Domain data for last month revealed that Sydney’s vacancy rate is just 1 per cent, down from 2.2 per cent the year prior. We’re witnessing the reality […]

The data found the combined value of residential real estate in Australia had fallen to $9.6 trillion at the end of September, down from $9.7 trillion in the previous month. The quarterly 4.1% decline marks the most pronounced quarterly fall since the 1980s. However, dwelling values across Australia are 1.7% higher than they were this […]