Australia rental affordability squeeze hits essential workers

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Australia rental crisis for workers

Highlights

Anglicare's 2025 Rental Affordability Snapshot shows fewer than 1 per cent of rental listings are affordable for retail workers, social workers, and cleaners across Australia.
Unit rents have surged 44.3 per cent and house rents 36.6 per cent over five years, while wage growth has been less than half of rent increases.
In Western Australia's Pilbara region, average weekly rent stands at about A$1,700, driven by demand from resource companies, worsening the affordability crisis for essential workers.

Affordability pressures deepen across key occupations

As reported by ABC News, Anglicare's annual Rental Affordability Snapshot finds that essential workers across Australia are losing access to the private rental market as rent growth continues to outpace wages.

The research shows retail workers, social workers and cleaners can afford fewer than 1 per cent of rental listings. Nurses and teachers fare only slightly better, with 1.1 per cent and 3.3 per cent of listings considered affordable, respectively.

Of the occupations covered in the snapshot, only three record an improvement in affordability from 2025, while 13 either deteriorate or remain unchanged. In the Northern Territory, a hospitality worker has no affordable rental options at all, according to the findings.

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers says wage growth has not kept pace with rent increases in recent years. Data from real estate analyst Cotality shows unit rents have risen 44.3 per cent over the past five years, while house rents are up 36.6 per cent, with Chambers saying wages have grown at less than half that pace.

Household strain grows in tight local markets

Individual accounts in the report illustrate the pressure on household budgets. Social worker Allie Thompson is preparing to move into a rental in inner north Brisbane for A$740 a week, an amount that will absorb about half of her income and force cutbacks including delaying some of her own medical care.

Nurse Silvia Laing, who supports cancer patients living at home and has worked in nursing for more than 40 years, pays A$550 a week for a rental in Albany, Western Australia, shared with her partner. She says discretionary spending including holidays and meals out has been reduced as housing and health costs take priority.

Anglicare staff are also affected in regional markets. Meenaaz Adams, the organisation's Pilbara service manager, has difficulty securing a long-term home in northwest Western Australia, where stronger demand from resource companies has pushed average weekly rent to about A$1,700.

Chambers argues the affordability gap reflects Australia's long-term reliance on the private market to supply housing. She says a larger social housing stock, including both new builds and shifts of existing homes into the social housing system, is needed to make rents manageable for workers in essential roles.

In our earlier article on early-career job-hopping, we examined research showing that changing jobs in the first years of a career can be a major driver of wage growth and a pathway to better long-term job matches. The analysis highlighted a gap between cultural skepticism about frequent moves and evidence that mobility can strengthen pay progression and career stability over time.

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