Renting in the time of COVID-19

The recent AHURI Report (External link) captures a ‘snapshot’ of circumstances for Australian renters. Many renters are currently buffered from the full economic effects of the pandemic by their savings, their superannuation, and rent deferment, as well as temporary government supports in the form of eviction moratoriums, JobKeeper and JobSeeker.

We have not yet seen the full effect of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic crisis, but this early analysis of the COVID-19 module of the Australian Rental Housing Conditions Dataset (ARHCD) suggests that the rental sector will be where many of the upcoming challenges for Australia overlap.