Australia’s housing crisis continues to worsen as Anthony Albanese prepares to move into a $4.3 million clifftop home overlooking the sea.
The Prime Minister has bought a beach house in Copacabana on the New South Wales central coast as Australians face an immigration-driven rental accommodation shortage.
Rental vacancies in the capital fell last month to just 1.2 percent, down from an already tight 1.3 percent in August, new data from SQM Research showed.
This means renters have fewer options about where to live, as immigration continues to grow at high levels and the large influx of international students competes with other potential renters.
SQM Research CEO Louis Christopher said renters are suffering the most, as a result of “continued strong migration growth”.
“This rapid population growth will continue to put pressure on the rental market,” he said.
“The national rental market continues to suffer from severe shortages and, with a few exceptions, the rental crisis is not expected to weaken substantially for several years.”
In the year to August, 452,670 net new migrants moved to Australia as the fertility rate fell to a new record low, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released this week revealed.
Australia’s housing crisis continues to worsen as Anthony Albanese prepares to move into a $4.3 million clifftop home overlooking the sea (pictured)
The Prime Minister bought a beach house in Copacabana on the New South Wales Central Coast, north of Sydney, as Australia faces an immigration-driven housing crisis (Anthony Albanese pictured right with his fiancée Jodie Haydon)
The annual net overseas migration figure was below record levels of more than 500,000, reached earlier this year, but is casting doubt on Labour’s promise to reduce immigration.
Permanent and long-term intake for the first few months of this financial year is well above the level of 260,000 for 2024-25 envisaged in the May Budget.
Daniel Wild, deputy chief executive of the Institute of Public Affairs think tank, said the latest figures showed more than 500,000 migrants were likely to have arrived in Australia by 2024, even when departures are taken into account.
“The federal government is treating Australians like fools as the latest immigration record reveals it has no intention of delivering on its promise to curb arrival levels, which is impoverishing Australians,” he said.
‘The federal government’s uncontrolled influx of migrants remains one of the most significant social and economic failures in Australian history.
“This record level of income is unplanned, unsustainable and has fueled the perfect storm of high inflation, declining household incomes and ever-higher home prices and rents.”
Rental vacancies in the capital last month fell to just 1.2 per cent, down from 1.3 per cent in August, new data from SQM Research showed (pictured, a Bondi rental queue in Sydney )
The real estate crisis has also coincided with a drop in the birth rate.
In 2023, Australia’s fertility rate fell to just 1.5 births per woman, down from an already low 1.63 in 2022.
This was even further below the replacement level of “two” – which encompasses mom and dad – and is the lowest fertility rate recorded since 1935 during the Depression.
Last year, Australia had 286,998 births registered, a drop of 4.6 percent from 2022 and the lowest since 2007.
The strong influx of foreign migration is also driving interstate migration, as families flee unaffordable Sydney in search of better prices in cities such as Perth and Brisbane.
Perth has a particularly tight rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent, as median house and unit rents in the year to October soared 11.4 per cent to $721 a week, SQM data showed Research.
While Sydney is Australia’s most expensive capital market for renters, at $838 a week, Perth is now second, ahead of Brisbane ($664.50), Canberra ($641), Melbourne ($628 dollars), Adelaide ($605), Darwin ($576) and Hobart ($503).
Regional and satellite cities are also especially difficult for renters.
Gosford, on the New South Wales Central Coast, has an ultra-low rental vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent.
It is also in the marginal Labor seat of Robertson, which covers Copacabana, where Albanese hopes to spend more time with his fiancee Jodie Haydon, whose family lives north of Sydney.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor suggested Albanese was planning his retirement.
‘Oh, look, I’m not thinking about retiring. Clearly, the Prime Minister is and we are going to help him with that. But thanks for thinking about it,” he told Triple M on the Central Coast on Thursday.