A new research report sheds light on the economic wellbeing of Australia’s cities and regions exposing the challenges that communities faced during the 2020-21 financial year. The report shows that national growth reached 1.5% in 2020-21, but Australia’s economy was a roller coaster ride of economic shocks, relative calm, and buoyant recovery across the nation.

The Rental Affordability Index (RAI) 2021 exposes the increasing unaffordability of rental properties across Australia for lower-income households and shows that many renters are worse off than before the COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently no affordable rental housing in Australia for single pensioners, pensioner couples, people on JobSeeker, and single part-time working parents also on benefits, apart from in regional South Australia. Rental prices continue to soar across the regions...

Essential workers have been keeping Australia’s cities moving during the COVID-19 pandemic – and the structure of our cities has put many in harm's way. Urban policy needs to adapt quickly to address the underlying inequalities across Australia’s spatial geographies.

Calls by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation for greater transparency and accountability in the use of development contributions to fund urban infrastructure are well justified. But arguments for a return to traditional funding models based on taxes and recurrent user charges should be treated with caution. They could simply transfer wealth to development site owners with no gain in housing affordability, said Dr Marcus Spiller.