TRANSCRIPT
As more people continue to call Australia home, the rental market has become a tight squeeze.
Yolanda Sun arrived in Australia in 2017 and has been renting since she came here.
She became a permanent resident in 2021 but she continues to struggle with the rising rental costs she's experienced in the past two years.
Mandarin then voiceover: "After the pandemic, rent has been gradually increasing with small increments of $10 to $15. There are relatively few available housing options."
Annual net migration has soared to record levels – at more than 454,000 arrivals in the past 12 months.
But it comes after a major dip as COVID-19 border restrictions prevented travel.
Average trends show the current surge is in part due to pent up demand, at a time when we’ve also had a 22 per cent drop of departures from the country.
Eliza Owen is the head of research at CoreLogic.
"Most migrants are typically renters when they first get here. But that's only a recent driver of growth in the rental market. We have to remember that even when borders were largely closed to overseas arrivals, rent value still increased by 16-and-a-half-per cent."
And with rental supply at record lows, finding somewhere affordable to live is becoming all the more difficult.
Around 61 per cent of new migrants arriving in Australia between 2016 and 2021 were renters.
That includes Yolanda.
Mandarin then voiceover: "Currently, there aren't many properties available in the market, and I also face some difficulties in terms of financial preparedness."
While short-term migration has put the pressure on housing costs, Ms Owen says strategic migration can actually be a housing solution.
"We're seeing more and more that construction workers, in particular, from overseas are being favoured for their ability to increase our productive capacity in construction and deliver more housing."
Piyush Tiwari is a professor of property at the University of Melbourne.
"Migration is not necessarily the devil that we are trying to tame at the moment. The bigger devil is the lack of supply and the lack of supply can only be addressed through structural reform like in the planning process or changing densities in the city."
As migration presents an opportunity for economic growth - researchers say migration targets - rather than caps - could help Australia realise the potential of its expanding population.
