The recently released Believe Housing Australia Rental Affordability Snapshot 2025 paints a bleak picture in which further tightening of the supply-demand balance is locking renters out of the market at alarming rates.

Rental affordability for single people working full time on a minimum wage sits at a dire one per cent and drops to zero for those on Youth Allowance or JobSeeker Payment. While only 12 per cent of properties are affordable for couples with children, working full time on a minimum wage.

In South Australia, the housing affordability crisis is hitting particularly hard. In Adelaide, rents have increased 8.8 per cent year-on-year to a median price of $626 per week and housing affordability has declined 4.4 per cent for those on a low income.

Competition for limited listings remains fierce with low-income earners and income support recipients disproportionately disadvantaged and the housing crisis creep now also ensnaring young students working in part-time jobs. Those most in need, including singles, single parents and young people are routinely priced out of the market.

At the recent opening of Believe Housing Australia’s $13.7 million development at Panorama, supported by the Federal Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), I met some of our new tenants who reflect the hidden face of the housing affordability crisis.

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Ali, a 25-year-old PHD candidate in molecular biology and casual academic, has moved into one of the Panorama apartments with his partner, who is studying pharmaceutical science.  He described previously living with his parents in Elizabeth, more than an hour from Flinders University, while he spent two years looking at properties that were either totally unaffordable or offered a single room apartment for upwards of $400 a week.

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All the residents who have moved into the Panorama complex, which offers high-quality homes at 25 per cent below the market rate, have their own stories to tell.  They are on low to moderate incomes and cannot afford to rent or buy in the private housing market. They also may not be eligible for social housing.

These are the very people our state, given its ageing population, needs to retain and attract – indeed many of these 20- to 30-year-olds are studying in the healthcare and service industries that so desperately need their support.

The latest data underscores a stark reality: The decade-long decline in social and affordable housing stock, coupled with Commonwealth Government payments and supplements that have not kept pace with inflation have created an intensifying housing affordability crisis.

Families and individuals are being forced into housing stress, overcrowding or homelessness. There are currently 58 families in Emergency Accommodation in South Australia (motels/hotels), where they will typically stay for up to eight weeks, while they wait for social housing.  On top of that, the Adelaide North West Homelessness Alliance receives an average of 53 phone inquiries per day from people at risk of homelessness.

While there’s welcome momentum including the South Australian Government’s Housing Roadmap and its commitment to deliver 4,817 homes by 2026, the scale of the crisis demands more.

The government must return to directly funding and providing housing through partnerships with community housing providers like Believe Housing Australia, instead of leaving housing to the private sector. We need to expand, quadruple, and accelerate delivery of social and affordable housing projects through HAFF funding and continue to support initiatives like this, which are delivering life-changing benefits for communities.

Targeted strategies are also needed to assist vulnerable cohorts, including students, essential workers, older people, First Nations communities, people with disability, and those escaping domestic violence.

However, these supply initiatives alone won’t fix the housing crisis. The reality is that making housing more affordable will require a massive shift in the political landscape, where policy is designed to keep rents high and maximise investor profit.

Without reforming tax settings that favour landlords, and ensuring more social and affordable homes are built, renters will see no improvement to the market conditions.

Governments have the tools but using them will take courage. With 74 per cent of voters owning their homes, real change won’t be universally popular. But it will be just.

At our Panorama development, one new tenant spoke about what stable, affordable housing meant to him — the ability to focus on his future, not just survive each week. Multiply that impact across a generation, and you see what’s possible.

We already have the partnerships, plans, and political momentum. Now we need bold leadership. Because housing is not just about buildings. It’s about giving people the foundation to thrive.

Stacey Northover, Executive General Manager of Believe Housing Australia. With over 25 years of experience in the UK and Australian housing sectors, Northover is overseeing Believe Housing Australia’s $100 million housing development pipeline committed over the next 10 years. In her role at Believe Housing Australia and as a Australian Community Housing Board Director, Northover is engaging with State and Federal Governments, Ministers and government bodies, including the South Australian Housing Trust and Housing Australia.