Snapshot: Anglicare Victoria – Victorian Rental Market Introduction Anglicare Victoria’s mission is to prevent, protect and empower. Our 1,400 staff and 2,700 volunteers work every day towards preventing harm befalling children, young people, adults and families, protecting those who have already experienced adversity from suffering further, and empowering all to strive towards better tomorrows. The achievement of every one of these important outcomes requires that our clients – like all people – are able to live in safe and affordable housing which is not overcrowded. Anglicare Victoria’s 2018 Rental Affordability Snapshot (RAS) was conducted as part of the national Snapshot undertaken by Anglicare Australia. The aim of the Snapshot is to learn what proportion of advertised rental properties are both affordable and have enough bedrooms to enable individuals and families to avoid overcrowding. The affordability of housing was calculated for individuals and families subsisting on the minimum wage or a Commonwealth income support payment or pension. These individuals and families make up much of Anglicare Victoria’s client base within our family support programs, family violence services, alcohol-and-other-drug treatment programs, out-of-home-care services, and other program areas. These are some of our society’s most vulnerable people. This is the 9th consecutive annual Snapshot. The Victorian Snapshot covered 48 Local Government Areas (LGAs) from across metropolitan Melbourne, as well as regional and coastal areas of Victoria.
Methodology On Saturday March 24th of the Snapshot weekend, 13,744 private rentals were advertised for rent in the Victorian rental market on realestate.com.au – from which all snapshot data was gathered. This included properties within Metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. * A property was defined as affordable if its advertised rental price per week did not exceed 30% of weekly individual/family income - with income including that from wages and/or income support payments/pensions, as well as family tax benefit and Commonwealth rent assistance, where applicable. This is a well-established and accepted threshold for “rental stress”.
* “Regional Victoria” for the purposes of the snapshot was restricted to local Government areas (LGAs) in which Anglicare
Victoria provides services, including: Ararat, Ballarat, Bass Coast, Baw Baw, Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Colac-Otway, Gannawarra, Greater Bendigo, Greater Geelong, Latrobe, Macedon Ranges, Mildura, Mornington Peninsula, Mount Alexander, South Gippsland, Swan Hill, and Wodonga.