The report examines the incomes of people earning between $40,000 through to $130,000 to see how much of their income they would need to spend to rent a typical unit across regional areas and capital cities.

Key findings

• Rental stress is no longer confined to those on lower incomes – it’s affecting professionals, essential workers and middle-income families who can’t keep up with rising rents.
• Renters earning $100,000 per year – well above the median income of $72,592 – are struggling in locations across Australia.
• A single person needs to earn at least $130,000 per year to comfortably afford the national weekly asking rent for a typical unit. An even higher income is required to afford the average unit rent across capital cities.
• People earning $70,000 per year would have to spend more than half of their income on the national median unit rent.

Key recommendations

• A program to begin building social housing to reach a goal of 940,000 homes over the next two decades.
• Phasing in a regime of tax reform.
• Coordinate a process of rental reform.