Sydney housing stress soars. Top 5 housing stressed suburbs revealed

Australians for Affordable Housing (AAH) today revealed the extent of housing stress across Sydney, and the top five housing stressed council areas.

New modelling commissioned by AAH shows the Sydney Local Government areas where renters and home purchasers are struggling with high housing costs – and the figures are dire.

AAH Campaign Manager Sarah Toohey said that people in Auburn suffered most with 28% experiencing housing stress, while Fairfield had the highest proportion of people experiencing both mortgage stress (34%) and private rental stress (51%).

“Areas such as Canterbury, Strathfield, Liverpool and Bankstown all have rates of housing stress over 20%,” said Ms Toohey.

“The high cost of housing in Sydney is not new, but these figures show where the pain is being felt and that urgent action by the NSW and Commonwealth Governments is needed. Sydney needs a housing strategy that includes more than releasing land on the city fringe. Premier O’Farrell needs to invest in more affordable housing options close to jobs and services to reduce the squeeze on weekly budgets.

“Housing is the single biggest cost of living issue in Australia. When low income households spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs they are officially in housing stress. This means they have very little left over to cover other costs like food, transport, bills or money for emergencies”

“Australians for Affordable Housing is urging Sydney residents in housing stress to join the campaign to convince governments to address the housing crisis. More information can be found on our website www.housingstressed.org.au

“We need collective action at all levels of government to ensure that we fix our broken housing system, and take the pressure off families struggling with high housing costs and lack of affordable options,” said Ms Toohey.

Housing  stress  ­‐  Australians  for  Affordable  Housing  local  council  league  table*

*This  league  table  provides  for  comparison  of  small  local  areas  and  is  based  on  modelled  census   numbers.  These    are  not  directly  comparable  with  recently  published  housing  stress  modelling  on   ABS  Survey  of  Income   and  Housing  data.

Australians for Affordable Housing is a coalition of national housing, welfare and community sector organisations to highlight the problem of housing affordability in Australia.

Media enquiries: Stephanie De Campo, 0432 828 004