In May 2023, Yahoo News published a disturbing report on the growing homelessness epidemic sweeping Brisbane, which has seen tent encampments mushroom at local parks.
In December, Yahoo News published a follow-up report claiming that “Aussie’s rental crisis is now at ‘disaster levels'”, with people sleeping in cars, tents, and insecure accommodations.
The report featured a series of photos showing growing tent encampments across Brisbane.
Last week, the media reported on a makeshift tent community that has popped up in the heart of Queensland Premier Steven Miles’ electorate of Murrumba.
About 20 people are reported to live in the makeshift tent community, some even with young children.
Homelessness is a growing problem across Australia, brought about by a dire shortage of affordable accommodation.
As shown in the next chart from Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro, Australia’s rental vacancy rates have collapsed to historical lows across Australia:
In turn, asking rents have rocketed across the capital cities over recent years.
The primary cause is obvious: extreme immigration-driven population growth, which saw Australia’s population grow by around 680,000 in 2023.
Not surprisingly, asking rents fell at the beginning of the pandemic when net overseas migration turned negative.
It then rocketed after borders were reopened in late 2021, and net overseas migration shot up to all-time highs.
With net overseas migration expected to remain historically high this year at the same time as dwelling construction is falling, there is no end in sight to Australia’s rental crisis.
We will have to get used to more Australians being thrown into group housing, homelessness, and insecure living arrangements.
