‘Housing affordability isn’t about Millenials eating too much avocado’:

‘Housing affordability isn’t about Millenials eating too much avocado’: The shocking number of working Australians forking out a THIRD of their wages on rent is revealed

  • 280,000 households in New South Wales are said to be in a state of rental stress 
  • But it’s not just because millenials are eating too much avocado, experts say    
  • A social housing campaign said that normal working Aussies were suffering
  • One forklift driver said he was forced to spend 70 per cent of his income on rent 

Nearly 380,000 households in one Australian state are suffering from rental stress – and paying more than 30 per cent of their wages on rent – a report has revealed.

A study by the University of New South Wales as part of the Everybody’s Home campaign also found some of those affected were on low income jobs like forklift drivers and employees in the aged care sector.

Those workers earned just $20 an hour, and a campaign spokesman said the statistics proved it was not just millenials’ in the inner city who could not afford to buy a house.

280,000 households in one Australian state are suffering from rental stress – and paying more than 30 per cent of their wages on rent – a study has revealed (stock image)

‘Housing affordability is not an inner city phenomenon experienced by Millenials consuming too much avocado,’ Everybody’s Home spokeswoman Kate Colvin told The Daily Telegraph.

‘It is being experienced most acutely by ordinary working Australians in electorates in Western Sydney and regional NSW,’ she added.

Single father and forklift driver Paul Murphy, 44, said he spent 70 per cent of his income on rent.

He puts $430 of a $650-a-week wage on renting a two-bedroom apartment in the southern Sydney suburb of Rockdale. 

He said: ‘It’s crazy but I have no choice.’ 

Rental stress is classified as being when a person spends more than a third of their income on rent. 

Rental stress is classified as being when a person spends more than a third of their income on rent (stock image)

Rental stress is classified as being when a person spends more than a third of their income on rent (stock image)

The study’s shocking findings echo a report released in August which found the average Melbourne resident must earn a wage of at least $130,000 a year to rent a three-bedroom home in the inner suburbs and not be considered to be in housing stress.

That report, by Compass Housing, found those rentals were beyond the reach of middle-income earners like teachers, nurses or journalists. 

The Everybody’s Home campaign is a movement focused on ‘bringing balance back to the system, so that everybody has a place to call home’. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk