Anglicare Calls For Incoming Government To Fix Australia’s Housing Crisis

Reaching “fever pitch”


Article heading image for Anglicare Calls For Incoming Government To Fix Australia’s Housing Crisis

Anglicare Australia is calling for real action on housing as the countdown to the polls continues.

The advocacy organisation is pushing for an investment in 500,000 new social and affordable dwellings across Australia to end the country's shortfall.

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Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers said the housing crisis has reached “fever pitch”.

“No part of the country has been spared. Rents are shooting up in towns and regions, and our cities have never been more expensive," she said.

Ms Chambers said that to prevent vulnerable Australians from ending up with nowhere to live, the incoming government needs to address the dire issue immediately.

“Investing in housing is the most powerful way to make the market more affordable and boost regional communities doing it tough after the pandemic and floods.”

- Ms Chambers

Exasperated by the pandemic, many former landlords, who bought prior to 2020, now want to upgrade or own a holiday house and they’re selling their investment properties.

"With most of this stock having been purchased by owner-occupiers, it has reduced the overall supply of stock in the rental market," one real estate agent said.

In addition, rental demand moved inner-city areas to regional markets, where rental supply is already tight, driving prices up.

And despite lockdowns ending, work-from-home mandates, along with improved online services means regional people who would normally leave the country for the city to work and study, are happily staying put.

Essentially the need for more social housing is massive, with plenty of solutions floating around including establishing a public housing developer or offering free TAFE for trade and construction.

But with governments remiss to tackle the big issues like housing affordability, only Band-Aid solutions like First Home Buyer schemes or Shared Equity Schemes will continue to be pushed, rather than investments into greater systemic change.

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Hit News Team

17 May 2022

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Hit News Team




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