Australia's rental crisis has reached unprecedented levels with new data showing rents have increased by an average of 57 per cent across capital cities over the past decade.
The new report, titled Out of Reach, by national housing campaign Everybody's Home has revealed that once-affordable cities have been hit the hardest.
It also shows that social housing has slipped to the lowest share on record, remaining stagnant at 4.1 per cent of all dwellings since the Labor government was elected in 2022. This is a further drop from 4.7 per cent a decade ago, putting even further strain on the rental market.
Key findings:
Capital city average weekly rents (combined houses and units) have surged 57% from $473 in 2015 to $742 in 2025
Over the past decade, Adelaide had the biggest rental increase of 81%, followed by Hobart (76%), Brisbane (66%) and Perth (63%)
The sharpest increase occurred in the past three years, with rents rising 34% since 2022
Social housing has declined from 4.7% of all homes in 2013 to 4.1% in 2024
To reach 10%, Australia needs to build more than 54,000 new social housing dwellings every year over the next 20 years.
Everybody's Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said: "This is a national crisis that is now pricing out everyday people right across the country. This report paints a clear picture of the damage that has been done, and without change it will only get worse.
"As the federal government has walked away from providing housing, more and more people are being forced into an already strained private rental market which then pushes up rents right across the board.
"Once-affordable cities like Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart are now suffering from some of the most acute rental pressures in the country. They've either caught up or have overtaken the larger cities in terms of unaffordability. With more Australians renting than ever before and being priced out of the private housing market, the need for more low-cost rentals is essential.
"Right now, around 4% of all homes are social housing. To reach 6%, Australia must build more than 36,000 additional social housing dwellings every year for the next decade. If we want one in ten homes to be social housing, we need to build an extra 54,000 social homes every year for 20 years. Whichever way you look at it, the scale dwarfs current government commitments and lays bare both the enormous demand and decades of chronic underinvestment.
"We need government action that matches the scale of the housing crisis. Australian governments have stepped up and mobilised during other emergencies, from COVID-19 to natural disasters. Housing should be no different.
"When the new government meets for the first time, housing needs to be at the front of the agenda. Our national leaders need to set binding social housing targets and make the ambitious investments required to make social housing an option for more Australians."
