Labor MPs represent half of least affordable electorates in the country

News.com.au

30-04-2025

A single person looking for work or a disabled Australian needs a miracle to find and get into an affordable rental in most capital city suburbs, a leading social support service has found.
The latest analysis from Anglicare Australia shows Anthony Albanese's electorate is among the top-20 least affordable in the country for someone on minimum wage or support payments.
Half of the 20 least affordable electorates are held by Labor MPs, while four of the six teal independents preside over electorates in the top-20 least affordable list.
'Across the country, there are 74 electorates without a single affordable rental for someone on the minimum wage,' Anglicare director Kasy Chambers said.
'The government spends eight times as much propping up private investors as it does on building homes for people who need them.'
'This approach is wrong and it's supercharging rents and house prices,' she added, referencing negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
Anglicare Australia publishes an annual health check of rental affordability.
Released on Wednesday, the latest edition shows in essentially half the electorates across the country (74 out of 151) there is not one affordable rental for a single person who's paid minimum wage.
The research looked at 51,000 rental listings across the nation in March and April.
Just three of these listings are affordable for someone on JobSeeker.
'These results show that housing cannot be left to the private sector,' Ms Chambers said.
'Voters are desperate for action. Instead, parties are promising more of the same.
'At best they are overlooking those who need the most help, and at worst, they are making promises that could overheat the market and push costs up.'
The research measures JobSeeker, age pension, youth allowance, minimum wage and parenting payments against the cost of renting a place to live.
Paying more than 30 per cent of your income on housing has become the benchmark for unaffordability.
In the Prime Minister's inner-Sydney electorate of Grayndler, not a single rental is affordable for people on JobSeeker, a couple on minimum wage with two kids or a single person on minimum wage.
One in every 500 rental listings is affordable for a couple on the age pension, the data shows.
Labor's Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones retired in January, and his Whitlam electorate south of Wollongong falls in the 20 least affordable electorates as well.
Nine of the 20 least affordable electorates are held by Labor.
Four Liberal Party MPs and one Liberal National Party MP preside over seats also on the 20-least-affordable list.
These electorates are Banks and Mitchell in western Sydney and Cook on the southern side of Botany Bay.
The members for Bradfield in northern Sydney and McPherson on the Gold Coast also make that list, but they are both retiring from politics at this election.
The bulk of the teal independent electorates also make the top-20 least affordable list.
Six teals were in parliament this term, though North Sydney MP Kylea Tink has to look elsewhere as her seat has been abolished.
Nonetheless, the Sydney teal seats of Warringah, Wentworth and Mackellar are among the least affordable in the country.
Melbourne's inner-south seaside seat of Goldstein is right there with them.
Mr Albanese's Labor colleagues preside over electorates that are wholly unaffordable for low income earners in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Greens spokesperson for housing and homelessness, Max Chandler-Mather, said the report was a 'red alert for renters,' and accused both major parties of not doing enough to help.
'It's now impossible for millions of renters to find an affordable home because both major parties have decided that the one third of people in this country that rent don't matter,' he said.
'Labor and the Liberals will give $180bn in tax handouts to property investors over the next decade - which all the experts say is turbocharging house prices and making this desperate situation even worse.
'For those renters, one rent increase away from homelessness, the Greens will keep fighting to cap rent increases and finally give the 7 million renters in this country protection from unlimited rent increases.'
While both parties have pledged major policies to boost rates of first home ownership, they have faced criticisms for not doing enough to help struggling renters.
On Tuesday, Mr Albanese was asked for his message to renters being hammered by consecutive rent increases, to which he said Labor had increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10 per cent - $23 a fortnight - in the 2024-25 budget.
'We have increased rental assistance by 45 per cent (throughout our term). We are the first government since rental assistance came in to have consecutive real increases in rental assistance,' he said
Labor also says its election promise to uncap the First Home Guarantee scheme to people of all incomes, which allows first home buyers to buy a home with just a 5 per cent deposit, will allow more renters to enter the housing market.