Australians paid an extra $7.1bn in rent over the past 12 months, with the average renter spending $62 more a week than they did a year ago, or more than $3,000 a year.
The figures are contained in research from the parliamentary library commissioned by the Greens, as they ramp up their calls for a national rental freeze, saying the increase could instead have been kept in people’s pockets to provide cost of living relief.
The research is based on average rental increases of 13.8% – as tracked by SQM property research – and Australian Bureau of Statistics census data from 2021.
According to the research, rents have increased 13.8%, from an average of $448 a week in June 2021 to $510 a week in June this year for households that are managed by a real estate agent, with the figure slightly lower for private rentals.
The figures exclude renters in social and community housing, employer-provided housing and residential parks, as well as private rentals leased by relatives.
Across the 2.2 million rental properties captured nationally, this results in a windfall for landlords of $7.1bn between June 2021 and June 2022, costing each household $3,151 a year.
The Greens’ spokesperson for housing and homelessness, Max Chandler-Mather, said the research further highlighted the rental crisis which had led the party to call for urgent federal intervention.
The party wants a two-year national rental freeze, followed by ongoing rent caps and an end to no-grounds evictions, minimum standards for rental properties, and tenant rights to make minor improvements to the home.
“Rents are out of control, millions of Australians are struggling to pay the rent, and families are facing living in tents and cars because they can’t afford record rent increases,” Chandler-Mather said.
“When Australian renters have paid an extra $7bn in rent over the last year alone, no wonder so many are struggling.”
He said that for families choosing between “buying food and paying the rent”, $3,000 may be the difference between eviction into homelessness and keeping a roof over their heads.
“If the government is serious about cost of living relief, if they’re serious about affordable housing, then it’s a no-brainer to freeze rent rises,” he said.
The $7.1bn in extra rent from 2021 to 2022 may end up being dwarfed by rental increases over the forthcoming year, with Guardian Australia reporting this week that tenants are being pushed to breaking point, with weekly rents in Sydney climbing by 23.7%. Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth have all recorded rent increases of more than 15% on the back of interest rate hikes and a lack of supply.
The focus on rental affordability comes as the government prepares to hand down its first budget on 25 October, which the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has said will have a focus on cost of living concerns.
However, he has maintained the government is constrained by the fiscal position it inherited from the Coalition, pointing to a trillion dollars in debt and future spending demands.
On Wednesday, releasing the final budget outcome for 2021-22, Chalmers said he could not afford to extend the fuel excise cut and acknowledged that Australians were being hit by cost of living pressures.
“We are aware of the pressures and we understand the pressures that Australians are under all around Australia,” Chalmers said.
“We will provide responsible cost-of-living relief in areas like childcare, and medicines and Tafe fees, and we will get wages moving again. But we can’t afford to fund every bit of cost-of-living relief indefinitely that people would like us to – that’s just the reality of the situation.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who has two investment properties, has previously rubbished the Greens proposal when asked if he supported the idea in principle.
“It’s not clear to me, short of nationalising property, how that could be achieved,” Albanese said last month.
Chalmers has said that while the government was not looking at rent freezes, “we do accept that a big part of the inflation problem in our economy is skyrocketing rents”.
