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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-21 Daily Xml
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Housing Crisis

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (15:41): I rise today to speak about the unprecedented housing crisis plaguing our state. This housing crisis is not one that has crept up on us. We have had Labor governments in South Australia for about 18 of the last 22 years, watching South Australia's population growth and not accounting for the housing supply needed to go with that growth. Sadly, property analysts say that the South Australian housing crisis is going to get worse before it gets better.

For too long the government has put aside the reality that we need housing—and now. South Australians are paying the cost. Today, I am standing up for the hardworking South Australians whose voices are not being heard, for those who cannot get their foot in the door to own their own home, and for those hardworking South Australians who are competing against hundreds of others to rent an overpriced home. That is not an exaggeration—it is hundreds.

Realestate.com.au revealed today that the demand for rooms and share houses is far outstripping supply in some Adelaide suburbs amid the cost of living and rental crisis. There were 105 people searching for a room in Brighton where there were none to rent, while Glenelg had 314 with just four available, according to the data. Meanwhile, there were 133 people seeking a room in Marion with just two available, and 143 in Henley Beach where there were just three on offer.

In bad news for South Australian renters, the residential vacancy rate in Adelaide during January 2024 was 0.5 per cent, compared with the national average of 1.1 per cent. We had the second worst residential vacancy rate in the nation, and that is putting upward pressure on prices, with September 2023 rental prices for houses rising around 8 per cent per annum while apartments were rising around 11 per cent.

These soaring prices ultimately put low income households into financial or housing distress. To highlight that point, in the last financial year more than 6,600 South Australians became homeless, with 70 per cent of those aged around 18 to 44, and well over half being parents with children.

Then there are those in our community who are trying to break into the property market. Those trying to purchase their first home in Adelaide are battling record average asking prices of more than $864,000, the highest in the state's history and almost more than double the asking price of 10 years ago.

However, it gets worse. Analysis carried out by the Gratton Institute highlights that between 2001 and September 2022 the national cost of a home grew by more than 400 per cent. Examination of the 2021 Census by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute highlighted that in 1981 about 61 per cent of Australians aged between 25 and 34 owned a home. By 2021 that had fallen to less than 45 per cent, and there are fears that this will only get worse with the rapidly rising costs of owning your own home.

Data analysed by Finder in late 2023 found that the minimum household income required to afford the average house is now more than $182,000. Yet, when the ABS reviewed personal income tax data from the 2020-21 financial year, it found that the median income in Australia was $54,890.

Now let us compare the difficulties of buying a home now compared with years gone by. Recent research shows that stamp duty is now around 4.4 times higher for Adelaide homebuyers than in the 1980s. Data sourced by the ABS highlights that baby boomers would be required to spend around four times their average annual salary to purchase a home, compared with Gen Z, who are now required to spend around 11 times their annual salary.

What is not helping right now is the cost-of-living crisis that is pushing South Australians to their breaking point. It is forcing them to take extreme measures to ensure that their rent and their mortgages are paid, all while keeping the lights on and keeping food on the table, a task that sadly for many South Australians is not an easy task at the moment.

Adelaide has seen one of the sharpest rises in the nation when it comes to food prices. Between 2021 and 2023—

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