Minister’s foreword
It is now tougher than ever for low and moderate income earners to find affordable rental housing for themselves or their families.
Vacancy rates are at critically low levels and rents are increasing fast.
New research by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling shows that 685,000 low and moderate income families are in rental stress.
Australians who in the past would have rented as a stepping stone to buying their own home are no longer able to afford even that.
For this reason, increasing the supply of affordable rental properties is now a major priority for the Australian Government.
The National Rental Affordability Scheme aims to leverage significant new institutional investment to increase the supply of affordable rental housing.
The Government will provide an annual incentive to institutional investors to build new homes and rent them to low and moderate income earners at 20 per cent below market rates.
This Technical Paper outlines the main features of the Scheme and how it will operate.
We need your comments and suggestions on the paper to help get the design of the new Scheme right.
This will help the Government to deliver its aim of increasing the supply of affordable rental housing for Australians and their families.
Tanya Plibersek
Minister for Housing