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Rental Affordability Snapshot

Anglicare Southern Queensland has been participating in the Anglicare Australia Rental Affordability Snapshot for more than a decade. The Snapshot highlights the lived experience of those on low incomes (both income support and minimum wage) trying to find a home that is both affordable and appropriate. Year after year, the findings continue to be dire.

 

2024 Rental Affordability Snapshot Southern Queensland

In response to the growing housing and homelessness crisis, in 2024 we expanded our focus from the Brisbane Metro region to the whole of southern Queensland. The results emphasise the scale of the problem, and the pressing need for swift and significant action on the part of governments.

Of the 8,553 properties we surveyed:

  • Only 45 (0.5%) were affordable and appropriate for households on income support
  • Only 759 (8.9%) were affordable and appropriate for those on minimum wage
  • In 12 months, the number of available properties in the Brisbane metro region that are affordable and available for all lower income household types has halved
  • Almost every lower income household in every region in southern Queensland pays more than a third of their income on the median rent

Lifting people out of crisis is a policy choice

We are calling on the Australian Government to increase financial supports to enable people to afford the basic living costs of housing, food, bills, and transport; and for both federal and state governments to invest in more social and affordable housing.

Our approach 

As part of the annual Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. We do this by taking a snapshot of the thousands of properties listed for rent on realestate.com.au on a particular weekend in March. We test whether each property is affordable and appropriate for people on low incomes.

The Snapshot provides evidence for the advocacy we undertake with, and for, the people we work with, including those who access our InSync Youth Services, Homelessness Services Women and Families, and Emergency Relief Program.

Turning round the housing crisis would leave a legacy of transforming hundreds of thousands of lives​

Rental Affordability Snapshot 2024 Report

Past Rental Affordability Snapshots

Title Tags Summary Link

Anglicare Southern Queensland Rental Affordability Snapshot Brisbane Metropolitan Area 2019

Cost of living Financial insecurity Housing and Homelessness Income support

As part of the Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. The 2019 report focuses on the particular challenges faced by young people in the rental market.

Anglicare Southern Queensland Rental Affordability Snapshot Brisbane Metropolitan Area 2018

Cost of living Financial insecurity Housing and Homelessness Income support

As part of the Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. The 2018 report highlights some of geographic shift in disadvantage as more people on lower incomes are pushed to suburbs increasingly distant from job opportunities, transport and services.

Anglicare Southern Queensland Rental Affordability Snapshot Brisbane Metropolitan Area 2020

Cost of living Covid-19 Financial insecurity Housing and Homelessness

Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. The 2020 ‘Snapshot’ data collection was uniquely held on the same weekend as the Australian Government doubled income support in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This report therefore comprises two ‘snapshots’, as it explores the difference the rate increase would make to people on income support if it were ongoing rather than temporary.

Anglicare Southern Queensland Rental Affordability Snapshot Brisbane Metropolitan Area 2021

Cost of living Covid-19 Financial insecurity Housing and Homelessness

As part of the Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. The 2021 report explores some of the rental market peculiarities of the first Covid year, but concludes that rental affordability that year remained as bleak as it had been for at least a decade.

Anglicare Southern Queensland Rental Affordability Snapshot Brisbane Metropolitan Area 2022

Cost of living Covid-19 Financial insecurity Housing and Homelessness

As part of the Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. The 2022 report is set against a ‘perfect storm of adversity’, including Covid, floods, increasing living costs, record low vacancy rates and surging rents.

Anglicare Southern Queensland Rental Affordability Snapshot Brisbane Metropolitan Area 2023

Cost of living Financial insecurity Housing and Homelessness Income support

As part of the Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. The 2023 report captures the desperation faced by Brisbane renters in a ‘catastrophic’ rental crisis.

Anglicare Southern Queensland 2024 Rental Affordability Snapshot: Southern Queensland

Cost of living Covid-19 Employment Financial insecurity

As part of the Anglicare Australia national Snapshot, every year Anglicare Southern Queensland tests if it is possible for people on low incomes to rent a home in the private market. In response to the growing housing and homelessness crisis, in 2024 we expanded our focus from the Brisbane Metro region to the whole of southern Queensland