Almost 37% of Victorian households earn what is classified as a low income, according to the most recent reliable census data. Over the past three years less than 10% of rental properties in metropolitan areas have been priced affordably for this group.
Low income households are defined as those where the total combined earnings are less than $928 per week, where there is more than one earner, according to government criteria. In order for a property to be classed as affordable the Victorian State Government requires that less than 30% of a low income household’s weekly earning would cover the price of rent.
The Shire of Yarriambiack in Victoria’s north-west is the state’s most affordable council area. Over the past three years 100% of the available rental listings have been deemed affordable to those in low income households. The median rental price for a three bedroom home in March 2016 was $180 per week.
Yarriambiack is not Victoria’s only affordable north-western area. The five most affordable councils in the state are all located there. Loddon, Hindmarsh, West Wimmera and Gannawarra make up the rest of the group, with over 95% of the available rental housing in each classified as affordable. All are predominantly agricultural areas where the main sources of income are wheat and sheep, and the top four areas each have a population under 10,000. They each cover an area of over 6,000 square kilometres.
Conversely, according to the same census data just 16% of Victorian households bring in over $2500 per week, meaning that there is a greater number of low income households in the state than those with a high income.
Victoria’s smallest percentage of affordable housing can be found in and around it’s capital. Specifically, in the City of Stonnington where on average just 0.78% of available rental properties over the past three years qualify as affordable for low income households, and the median price of a three bedroom rental home is $726 per week.
Stonnington is not the only council area that is unaffordable for less wealthy sections of the community. Port Phillip, the City of Melbourne, Boroodara and Bayside are the five least affordable areas in the state, and all are concentrated in Melbourne’s metropolitan south-east.
So, with affordable housing and plenty of space, why aren’t more people living in North-Western Victoria? Money probably has something to do with it.
Just over 47% of households in regional Victoria earn less than $1000 per week, compared to 34% in metropolitan areas. Just nine per cent earn over $2500 per week, against almost 20% in metropolitan areas.
[infogram id=”fb819810-5940-494d-81a5-a1c9e1407394″]Access to services like education is likely also related. The five least affordable council areas cover a total area of 182 square kilometres, and in this area there are 75 primary and secondary schools, one for every two and a half square kilometres. The five most affordable councils have a combined area of 34,219 square kilometres over which there are 31 primary and secondary schools.
Home mostly to professional and technical services businesses, Stonnington is vastly different to Yarriambiack and its agriculturally based economy. There are 10 Centerlink Service centres within as many kilometres of the City of Stonnington council offices, but it is a 40 kilometre trip from Yarriambiack Shire’s offices to their closest service centre in Horsham.
Almost half of all regional Victorian households earn little enough a week to be classified as low income, so much of the rental housing in the state’s north-west is likely affordable because it has to be.
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