Two-thirds of tenants in Australia rent through an agent, so making a good impression on the agent matters. Certain characteristics count in tenants' favour, but some factors are beyond their control.
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Articles on Rental market
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Once rent is paid, having to live on only $14 a day doesn't cover the costs of job seeking. The evidence of the need to increase Newstart and Rent Allowance is overwhelming.
Not all landlords see their properties purely as investments. As welfare reforms take hold, some are starting to take greater responsibility for the well-being of their tenants.
With Australian city rents too high for low-income earners, increasing numbers are forced to share houses or rooms or to live in options like 'beds in sheds' and other illegal dwellings.
It's now clear that a single American company, Airbnb, has upended local housing markets, pushed rental prices skyward and could be contributing to poverty, especially in cities popular with tourists.
Living in shared rooms is on the rise, because it's more affordable – and more profitable for landlords. But it's also a more precarious, often overcrowded and poorly regulated form of housing.
Short-term letting via digital platforms benefits some in the market at the expense of others. Closer regulation might be needed in Melbourne and Sydney, where a permissive approach prevails.
Renting a house shouldn't mean it's not home. Until we change our meaning of home by separating it from ownership, we will never be able to "fix" Australia’s housing crisis.
In Canberra you can build on land you don't own, and it's cheaper.
Property prices have soared in the past decade, but much more modest increases in rent, with the exception of Sydney, suggest less of an imbalance of supply and demand for housing as a place to live.
Another affordable housing pact between the Commonwealth, states and territories came into effect this month. But with no new funding, the agreement may be different from predecessors in name only.
One problem with Airbnb is that it isn't transparent about how many properties are truly 'shared' and how many are just part of a letting business. Regulators need to know that to manage the impacts.
The patterns of Airbnb listings in Australia's biggest cities suggest impacts on rental housing are likely to be biggest in high-end areas that appeal to tourists. Low-income areas are less affected.
A new report shows how the private rental sector is changing.
New modelling shows negative gearing and capital gains taxes can be reformed in a way that doesn't impact poorer investors.
Increasingly insecure pathways to home ownership are not just a problem for property markets. The fallout is likely to hit retirement incomes, the welfare base, gender equity and the broader economy.
People on moderate incomes, including police and emergency workers, have been forced to seek housing on the city fringes, far from their places of work. But there are ways to reverse this trend.
There is a risk that affordable housing policy may be colonised by for-profit interests if Australia imports the wrong rental housing ideas from overseas.
City living costs are driving people to organise themselves to share a room with strangers. These precarious living arrangements hardly qualify as a home.
About 10% of empty dwellings on census night – 1.2% of all housing – were available for rental and vacancy rates have changed little in 35 years. Could governments be overreacting?
Top contributors
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Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW
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Professor of Economics, School of Economics, Finance and Property, Curtin University
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Lecturer in Urbanism, University of Sydney
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Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Sydney
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Research Lecturer, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW
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Emeritus Professor of Housing and Housing Studies, RMIT University
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PhD Candidate, Urban Research Program, Western Sydney University
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Honorary Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge
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Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne
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Research Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Director, Henry Halloran Trust, University of Sydney
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Professor, Curtin Law School and Curtin Business School, Curtin University
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Director, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, and Bankwest Research Chair in Economic Policy, Curtin University
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Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW
