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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-07 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Affordable Housing

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:07): It is clear that the rental market has become increasingly tight nationally, with Adelaide and regional SA being no exception. We have soaring rental prices and plummeting vacancy rates resulting in some households from being able to remain in the private rental market and some falling into homelessness.

We have the South Australian Women's Legal Service warning of a threefold increase in the number of domestic violence victims forced to remain living with their abusive partners. A study released by AnglicareSA in April examined 1,125 rental properties, finding just two were 'affordable and appropriate' for a single person working on a minimum wage. Further, no rentals were affordable for a single person on JobSeeker, youth allowance or the age pension, while just four properties were affordable for a couple on JobSeeker with two children.

The most recent figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia show that Adelaide has the least accessible rental market of any Australian capital city, with just 0.6 per cent of dwellings vacant. It does not stop there. We have the media continuing to draw attention to this important issue, and the average rent per week is continuing to increase. In CoreLogic's quarterly rental review from April to June 2022, a median property rent for Melbourne was $480 per week compared with $492 per week in Adelaide, leaving Adelaide now more expensive than Melbourne for rentals.

Further to this, new figures show that as many as 2,513 properties will be cut from the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). The scheme enables landlords to charge 20 per cent below market value for affordable housing for up to 10 years. The 2,513 properties comprise 386 this year, 806 in 2023, 1,079 in 2024, 240 in 2025, and two in 2026. This will add even more pressure onto the South Australian housing market.

It is no surprise that the vulnerable are becoming even more marginalised as we see the number of South Australians resorting to living in tents and caravan parks, couch surfing and staying in abusive relationships for shelter made worse during this harsh winter. This morning, we saw the Premier and Minister for Human Services announce that the Cost of Living Concession will be brought forward from March next year to this August. Whilst we support any assistance that can be provided to South Australians in this difficult time, more needs to be done to ease rental pressures and prevent homelessness.

The Malinauskas Labor government and responsible ministers, including the Minister for Human Services, need to step up and provide faster and more effective solutions to the urgent housing crisis that South Australians are currently faced with. It is not enough to bring forward a date for concessions when our most vulnerable would already have been expecting and budgeting for this measure. The crisis is much bigger than this. Urgent assistance and reforms are required to resolve this ongoing issue.

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