The project explores spatial trends in the provision of low income rental housing in Melbourne Sydney and Adelaide . There are increasing concerns about the role and targeting of private sector Rent Assistance (RA) to low income households. Research has indicated that landlords are withdrawing from the lower end of rental provision and that investment returns and the effectiveness of negative gearing is lower in this sector of the rental market. Inner city gentrification has also removed large numbers of lower priced rental stock in recent decades, pushing the market for this housing into the middle and outer suburbs. This project charts the trends over the 1991-2001 period for the three case study cities.
The project also unpacks the social profile of the low income rental market and explores the relationship between this market, the distribution of rent assistance recipients and households on the public housing waiting list in the three cities
Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 088:
Where do low-income private renters live?
Final Report: No. 101:
Rent assistance and the spatial concentration of low income households in metropolitan Australia