At 67 and 71, Sally Marano and her husband, Shimon, would not be considered among the nation’s typical renters.
The Melbourne couple receive about $1,724 a fortnight on the pension and, as of this week, more than half of it goes straight back out of their account: their rent has risen to $890 a fortnight.
“It’s going to be very, very hard,” she says, of paying the rent in their new place in Craigieburn. “Very hard. We don’t know how we’re going to manage it.
“But we had to move somewhere, otherwise we were going to be in the streets.”
Rental affordability has plunged to record lows in almost every state, with low-income renters such as pensioners frequently paying more than 50% of their income for housing, according to the 10th annual National Shelter-SGS Economics and Planning Rental Affordability Index released today.
For single jobseekers and part-time workers receiving a parenting payment, every state is now classed as severely unaffordable or worse. And only regional South Australia is affordable for a single hospitality worker.
In the past 12 months, rental affordability has declined 13% in Perth, 8% in Adelaide, 6% in Melbourne, 5% in Sydney and 4% in Brisbane.
Perth is now the least affordable capital city, with a median weekly rent of $629 taking up 31% of median income, closely followed by Sydney, where median rent of $720 is 30% of median income, meeting the threshold for rental stress.
Marano and her husband are now paying 51% of their income. The couple have worked their whole lives – Marano worked in factories or as a cleaner, while Shimon did odd labouring jobs – but never earned enough money to buy a home. Their last rental was $50 a week cheaper, which she says was manageable.
“The last house, we were there about three years but it’s being sold,” she said.
“And the house before we had been there 10 years, but it was being sold so we had to move. Everywhere we have lived, they’ve sold the house. At this age, it’s very hard for us.”
The pair applied for 40 houses before getting this one. They have been on the public housing waiting list for 12 years, only recently being moved to the priority list.
“I’m telling you, I don’t know how we’re going to manage it now – it’s already hard. Bills up, rent up, food up, everything is up.”
National Shelter spokesperson John Engeler said the of combination of rent increases outpacing income growth and low vacancy rates had put a lot of pressure on renters.
“The situation is especially serious for low-income renters who are increasingly forced to rent privately due to the declining availability of social and affordable housing,” he said.
“For instance, a single person on the disability pension in Sydney would have to pay 86% of their very low income in order to afford appropriate rental of a one bedroom.”
Engeler said the private rental market had grown 5% in a generation, and it was only going to get worse.
“And the safety net of the social housing system is not able to keep up because it’s dropping in real terms as well. In the case of Victoria, it’s less than 3%, New South Wales is about 4.5%.
“Alarm bells ring when it’s below 5%.”
The chief executive of Housing for the Aged Action Group, Fiona York, said there had been a “massive jump” in the number of older renters.
“There has been a 73% increase in 10 years across the country,” she said.
“And most of those people are in the lowest income quintiles, so that means they’re on the pension and they’re unable to afford the rent.”
HAAG, which operates in Victoria, has seen a 40% increase in the number of calls this year. Australia’s pension system was not designed to manage this new reality, York said.
“The pension rate, although it’s low, you are able to manage if you don’t have housing costs, but that is increasingly not the case,” she said.
“It means people aren’t able to retire with any sort of dignity or to be able to manage their health. The retirement system is not designed for older renters.”
