If you’re hoping to find an affordable rental property in regional NSW, try searching in the Upper Hunter.
Port Stephens, on the other hand, is one area where you will pay more.
These are the findings in The Affordable Housing Income Gap Report released this week.
The report, produced by Hunter-based Compass Housing Services, measures housing affordability for renters by establishing the amount of additional income a typical renting household needs to avoid housing stress.
The results are based on various types of dwellings in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.
The report shows housing stress was already a major issue for typical regional NSW renters, long before COVID-19 lockdowns began to hit household budgets.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, renting had become marginally cheaper across the bulk of the Greater Sydney area but significantly more expensive in certain regional areas of NSW.
According to the report, non-metropolitan local government areas in NSW have greater affordability issues than other states.
Of the 10 least affordable local government areas in NSW, four are outside Sydney.
Report author, Martin Kennedy, said lower household incomes in regional NSW means that typical renters in many areas experienced housing stress despite nominally cheaper rents.
Mr Kennedy added the report shows that housing stress isn’t just something experienced by people on low incomes.
“Even before the current crisis working families with average incomes often struggled to rent suitable properties close to jobs,” he said.
“Throw in the possibility of reduced hours or a job loss due to COVID-19 and things can become very tough indeed.
“Although rents are expected to fall in the short term due to more stock coming on to the market, they may not fall far enough to become affordable for typical renting households.
“More to the point, it shouldn’t take a global pandemic, closed borders and widespread lockdowns to bring median rents more in line with median incomes.”
Mr Kennedy said the existence of the affordable housing income gap is part of a broader housing crisis.
“The problems facing renters are largely due to purchase prices being too high and social housing supply being too low.”
“Unfortunately, people who can’t afford to buy, and don’t qualify for social housing, have no option but to cut back elsewhere and try to manage as best they can.”
Regional NSW’s least affordable LGAs for renting were Byron Tweed Shire, Clarence Valley (Grafton), Ballina, Coffs Harbour Shoalhaven, Port Macquarie, Goulburn, Kiama and Port Stephens.
The most affordable LGAs for renting were the Upper Hunter, Broken Hill, Wagga Wagga, Tamworth, Western Plains (Dubbo), Queanbeyan, Albury, Bathurst, Orange, and Armidale.
