{"id":40281,"date":"2026-08-06T18:34:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T08:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=40281"},"modified":"2026-08-06T18:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T08:34:46","slug":"inquiry-housing-catastrophe-prices-and-rents-soar-past-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/08\/06\/inquiry-housing-catastrophe-prices-and-rents-soar-past-wages\/","title":{"rendered":"Inquiry &#8211; Housing Catastrophe: Prices and Rents Soar Past Wages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The seventh hearing of the Greens-led Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity, held in Perth today, heard evidence of a housing catastrophe with house prices and rents rising multiple times faster than wages or inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additional evidence to the committee today showed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the last 45 years, we have witnessed a catastrophic decoupling of house prices from wages, with real house prices soaring 350% since 1981 while real wages have increased by just 60%.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There\u2019s been a significant fall in home ownership for people in their late 20s and early 30s resulting in life long renting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It now takes 10.6-12.4 years to save for a 20% deposit compared to around 5 years in 1990.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Homeowners now pay on average 45% of their income on mortgage repayments, well above the 33% benchmark of housing stress.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Government schemes, such as the 5% deposit scheme, are insufficient to solving the housing crisis and have pushed up prices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Life-term renters generally accumulate less wealth and less retirement security, are more likely to rely on commonwealth rent assistance and the age pension, signalling fiscal challenges ahead.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lack of affordable housing is a barrier to attracting essential workers within commuting distance of their jobs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People in WA are living in vans, tents, and caravans in relatives\u2019 driveways. There are families by their hundreds living in cars and under bridges.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Youth homelessness has risen 32% in the past decade in Perth, while rent has increased by 50% since 2020.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On average, one young person experiencing homelessness dies every six days in Australia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Renters are being left behind, as government policy focuses heavily on home ownership while the National Rental Affordability Scheme has ended.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is a chronic and growing shortage of suitable housing for disabled people in WA. Disabled people face even greater barriers to securing a safe and affordable roof over their heads.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Short-stay accommodation like AirBnB is cannibalising the rental market, with 14 unhosted AirBnBs for every long-term rental available in regional WA.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>WA currently remains the only state in the country that still has no grounds evictions on its rental laws.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Every year, Western Australia evicts five times more children into homelessness than New South Wales per capita.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Since WA Labor took office in 2017, more than 3,000 children have been evicted from public housing into homelessness. More than half of all these evictions were First Nations families.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Greens spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara Pocock:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cToday\u2019s evidence is clear: House prices are out of control, rents are out of control, while wages are going backwards. Working hard no longer secures a roof over people\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the past 45 years, real house prices have soared by 350%, while real wages have increased by just 60%. We\u2019ve seen a catastrophic decoupling of housing and wages.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHouse prices need to fall if first home buyers stand any chance of getting into the housing market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRents are rising at record rates forcing people to spend much more than 30% of their income just to keep a roof over their heads.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018This housing catastrophe is turbocharging inequality. At the top end, banks, developers, big property investors, and the real estate industry are profiting from disaster, which is ruining the life-chances of millions of young Australians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLabor&#8217;s plans to fix the housing crisis are not touching the sides. After four years of rapidly increasing house prices and astronomical increases in rents, it&#8217;s no wonder Australians are ditching the major parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn a nation-wide housing catastrophe, we need rent caps and a massive long term boost in public investment in good quality homes, renting them to people at prices they can actually afford.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Greens spokesperson for Health, Mental Health, Disability Rights, the NDIS and Youth and Senator for Western Australia, Jordan Steele- John<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAcross Western Australia, people are sleeping in cars, tents and caravans because they simply cannot find an affordable home. That&#8217;s the reality of a housing crisis that governments have allowed to spiral for far too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The evidence heard in Perth today makes it crystal clear that renters, young people and disabled people are paying the price for decades of political failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Disabled people are being hit especially hard, with a chronic shortage of physically accessible and affordable housing leaving far too many without a safe place to call home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;At the same time, short-stay accommodation is stripping long-term rentals from communities across WA. In some regional areas, there are fifteen entire unhosted Airbnbs for every long-term rental available. That&#8217;s a policy failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This week I heard directly from people at a community forum in Secret Harbour about the impossible choices they&#8217;re being forced to make. Governments need to start delivering more public and affordable housing, stronger renter protections, and ensure there are homes that people can actually afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Greens are fighting for a housing system that puts people before property investors, and ensures everyone has access to a safe, secure and affordable home.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B4369Dy12og\"><u>Public hearing link<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The seventh hearing of the Greens-led Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity, held in Perth today, heard evidence of a housing catastrophe with house prices and rents rising multiple times faster than wages or inflation. Additional evidence to the committee today showed: Greens spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/08\/06\/inquiry-housing-catastrophe-prices-and-rents-soar-past-wages\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Inquiry &#8211; Housing Catastrophe: Prices and Rents Soar Past Wages&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40282,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40281\/revisions\/40282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}