Rent stress hits worrying peak

THE Bellarine is among the most expensive places to rent in Victoria, with housing charities calling on governments to address the problem.

Affordable housing advocates, Everybody’s Home, analysed rental data earlier this month for Homelessness Week, which highlighted region’s in rental stress.

Property market researchers SQM found the Bellarine’s average rental cost $455 a week, up 5.1 per cent year-on year in the past three years.

The problem across south-west Victoria was even worse; average asking rent was $473 in the region, up 11.1 YOY.

It follows an Everybody’s Home analysis last month that found south-west Victoria had a vacancy rate of less than one per cent, and that asking rent had gone up 16 per cent in the 12 months to June.

Other Everybody’s Home data indicates the rising prices are heaping further pressure on household budgets.

Rental stress occurs when renters are spending more than a third of their income on rent.

The group said in the Corangamite federal electorate, which includes the Surf Coast, Bellarine and parts of southern Geelong, 38.4 per cent of renters were under financial stress.

For Corio, which takes in most of greater Geelong, the figure was 61.3 per cent.

“We know that rental stress is the gateway to homelessness,” Everybody’s Home national spokesperson Kate Colvin said.

“When you combine surging rents with flat wages you put people in a financial vice. For the past three years that vice has been tightening.

“The recent change of Government represents an opportunity for a reset.”

For a decade construction of new social and affordable housing has withered.

“Now is the time to get moving and give people on low and modest incomes genuine choice.”

SQM hopes the recent figures represent a peak in housing stress after seeing signs of easing pressure in recent weeks.

In the 30 days to July 14, the researcher found that asking rents were down one per cent on the Bellarine and 2.6 per cent in south-west Victoria.