Anthony Albanese’s promise to reduce immigration from record levels looks increasingly hollow during a housing crisis.
During the last financial year, 445,600 migrants arrived in Australia.
This was 50,600 more than the level of 395,000 forecast for 2023-24 in the May budget documents.
The difference between what Treasury forecast and the number of arrivals is almost equivalent to a major regional center like Albury, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this week showed.
SQM Research CEO Louis Christopher said renters are likely to continue to suffer over the next year as immigration moderates from last year’s record levels of above 500,000.
“Another year of rapidly growing population compared to our low construction rate will keep the pressure on renters in 2025,” he said.
Christopher said the rise in vacant rental accommodation, compared to a year ago, had more to do with an increasing number of people living in shared accommodation than an increase in new housing.
“While we still have a rental shortage in our two largest capital cities, the situation has clearly improved since the very difficult days of 2021 to 2023,” he said.
Anthony Albanese’s promise to reduce immigration from record levels looks increasingly hollow during a housing crisis.
‘I believe this is mainly due to the increase in the number of occupants per property.
“Soaring rents have forced many to make concessions in their living conditions.”
Australia’s most crowded cities, Sydney and Melbourne, also continue to welcome a higher proportion of foreign newcomers.
New South Wales welcomed 142,473 immigrants, in net terms taking into account overseas departures, ahead of Victoria’s intake of 132,859.
The two states together were home to 62 per cent of Australia’s 445,600 new foreign residents who arrived during the last financial year.
When Queensland’s figure of 74,932 was added to the mix, Australia’s three largest states on the east coast were home to 78.4 per cent of the new immigrants.
This is also happening during a housing crisis that has caused double-digit annual increases in rents in some cities.
The large influx of foreigners to Sydney has caused an exodus of local residents to other states, where rental spaces are already very scarce.
During the last financial year, 445,600 migrants arrived in Australia. This was 50,600 more than the level of 395,000 forecast for 2023-24 in the May budget documents (pictured, Sydney’s Pitt Street shopping centre).
Queensland gained 29,910 new out-of-state residents during the last financial year, while 30,865 people left New South Wales to escape Sydney’s unaffordable housing.
The rental vacancy rate in Brisbane last month was 1.1 per cent, or a notch below the national average of 1.4 per cent, new data from SQM Research has revealed.
But Perth was an even worse place for renters, with an extremely tight rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent, the tightest in Australia.
Western Australia also had the highest population growth rate in the country, at 2.8 per cent, as 9,742 new residents arrived from interstate, plus 58,082 from overseas.
The national annual population growth rate of 2.1 percent marked a moderation from the 2.5 percent level at the end of 2023.
This figure was the highest since the early 1950s, when a record 548,800 immigrants a year were still arriving in Australia.
The natural increase, or births minus deaths, of 106,400 represented just 19 per cent of Australia’s annual population increase of 552,000 in 2023-24, with the rest coming from immigration.