‘Five homes affordable’: Rental market at breaking point for young South Aussies
New data shows dismal rental options for young South Australians with one 22-year-old uni student telling how dozens of rejected applications is “disheartening” and “humiliating”.
A new rental snapshot shows a single person on a minimum wage could only afford to rent five homes on the South Australian housing market in March.
Renters are being locked out of safe and stable housing as large groups battled for 1,990 listed homes across the state, according to Believe Housing Australia as it releases new data from Anglicare Australia’s 2026 Rental Affordability Snapshot.
The snapshot taken on March 14 this year showed of 1,990 listed properties, a single person on minimum wage could apply for five homes in the state, a decline of 11 homes compared to 2025.
One Adelaide man Bayley Fitzpatrick, 22, told InDaily the results were not surprising and high demand was making it increasingly difficult for young adults to move out of family homes.
His described a four-month search for a rental property with two other 22-year-olds wanting to move out of family homes as “disheartening” and “humiliating” as the three were constantly edged out by others fighting to win rental contracts.
“We have lodged between 20 and 30 applications,” Fitzpatrick, an Adelaide University student with a steady part-time job, said.
He said one of the other rental hopefuls worked full time and the other 35 hours a week but “it feels landlords when we arrive it is like they are interrogating us, do you currently live out of home? Is this your first rental? It makes you feel disheartened and it makes me worry.”
The data released today also showed a single person with two children (one under five years and one under 10) on minimum wage and Parenting Payments could access 13 homes, showing no “meaningful change” from the previous year. It followed rental prices hitting record prices earlier this year.
Believe Housing Australia executive general manager of Housing Services Stacey Northover said that without a safe, secure, and affordable home, South Australians could not hope to thrive.
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“The 2026 Rental Affordability Snapshot finds that, in South Australia, even full-time work is often insufficient to secure affordable housing in the private rental market for those on the lowest incomes,” Northover said.
“While building activity and increases in rental supply are positive indicators for the state’s economy, these headline figures can obscure the reality for those at the bottom of the market, where housing affordability continues to worsen and more people are being locked out.”
Believe Housing Australia is AnglicareSA’s housing arm and manages more than 2,000 homes and supports around 5,000 tenants across SA.
“For people on income support and low wages, the level of income is the single biggest factor shaping access to housing,” Northover said.
“The snapshot shows that even small increases in rent can eliminate what little access exists to South Australian homes.
“Increasing the adequacy of Commonwealth payments, alongside fair indexation of wages at the lower end of the labour market, is essential. Without this, people will continue to be priced out of even the most modest rental options.”
Northover said while the Housing Australia Future Fund represented a significant commitment to social and affordable housing, an increased supply of housing would not improve affordability without targeted delivery for low and ver low-income households.
“Rental affordability influences every element of life, where people can live and work, their access and proximity to services, their health and safety, and whether the children in these families grow up with more opportunities than the previous generation,” she said.
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